


XTREMIS

by MistressOfDeath



Series: Frozen to the Marrow [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Awesome Natasha Romanov, Awesome Pepper Potts, BAMF Harry Potter, BAMF Pepper Potts, BAMF Tony Stark, Extremis Pepper Potts, Father-Daughter Relationship, Female Harry Potter, Gen, Genius Harry Potter, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Parent Tony Stark, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers and the 21st Century, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Uncle James "Rhodey" Rhodes, daughter harry potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-22 22:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 33,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23001733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressOfDeath/pseuds/MistressOfDeath
Summary: 8 months after the alien invasion, things have started going back to normal for everyone but the genius father-daughter duo. As Tony busied himself with his suits and sorting his priorities, Rose ended up with her own demons to face. their relationship starting to suffer as they try to deal with their own problems. Just when they thought they had enough and deserved vacation, someone else decides it's not their time off. And it doesn't help that Tony threatened a terrorist.
Relationships: Harry Potter & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Harry Potter & Pepper Potts, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Frozen to the Marrow [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1648501
Comments: 12
Kudos: 237





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to M3. Can be found on fanfiction.net by the same name by the same author, aka me

8 months since the alien invasion,

Rose removed her glasses, keeping them on the table as she ran a hand through her newly dyed hair.

A few weeks after she moved back to Malibu, she had gotten her pink hair dyed again. This time it was gradient and something that was a welcome change. The hair roots were the darkest purple which slowly transcended to her original rose gold. Her hair had grown a lot in the past 8 months, ever since the battle with aliens, now reaching her lower back.

Sure CEOs were supposed to be super formal and not go dying their hair crazy colors, but Rose was not only one of the youngest CEO in the world, but she also didn't give a damn about those rules. No one can fire her. And she was so used to the limelight that she didn't care anymore. Besides rules were always meant to be broken.

"Need some chamomile tea?"

Rose almost chuckled as Pepper entered her office, dressed in a crisp attire. Usual Pepper

"I'm good" Rose answered and looked at her long time best friend/PA/father's girlfriend/confidant.

"Hmm" Pepper nodded with a smile but her tone easily implied that she didn't buy it.

"Seriously, I'm fine, Pep"

Rose shot Pepper a look who now sat in front of her

"and didn't you had a date with dad for tonight?"

A considerable and reasonable blush adorned her cheeks

"Are you listening in on our conversation, Rose?"

"Nope. JARVIS gave me a heads up. So, Pepprika, do take rest of the day off"

Pepper smiled at the nickname Rose was used to call her

"I really mean it"

"I'm not leaving you in the office with a headache," Pepper said, finality in her voice

Rose let out an exasperated sigh and leaned back

"J, some chamomile tea would be good. Make it strong"

In the corner of her office, she heard the tea machine start. Rose had a general dislike towards the mechanical version of the tea maker and rather preferred the old kettle-stove method, but she couldn't really have a stove in her office. She had to suffice with an electronic machine.

"See? I got it all under control" Rose smiled

Pepper shot her a look but sighed and shook her head

"Can I trust you not to set the office on fire?"

Rose looked at her clearly offended

"How could you insinuate that?! Never!!"

Pepper giggled and turned to leave

"Have a nice day, Pepprika!" Rose called after her

"Go back home and take some rest"

Rose brushed her off and settled back on the CEO chair, twirling around in it. She glanced up the clock. 7.30 pm.

"Is anyone left here?" she asked

"Everyone has left except you, Ms. Stark" Jarvis curtly answered

"good" she muttered and bent down to remove her pencil heels. She rubbed her feet to regulate the blood flow and let her head roll back and eyes close

Ever since she had left Manhattan for Malibu, she had completely immersed herself in work. While Tony was busy creating suits, Mark XL(40) being the latest, Rose had busied herself with the CEO work. Briefing people for the recent Manhattan show, her coming back to resume her position as the CEO, patents and contracts and new inventions. Even helping the American Ministry with the cleanup.

The tea machine chimed, disturbing the silence of the office room

"Your tea is ready, miss" Jarvis answered

"Thank you" she muttered, got up and walking to the machine, took the mug. She took a sip and gave out a content sigh. Just the way she liked it. Still nursing the mug, she walked to the windows, looking down at the city.

The whole city of people and here she was alone in the office. She scoffed.

She briefly pulled her phone and looked at the call logs. Steve's name flashed. She wanted to call him but didn't know what to say exactly. She hadn't seen him for the past 8 months, kind of ever since he asked about her mother. She didn't even know why did she clam up by that question.

When she voiced her concerns to JARVIS, who Tony had programmed just beautifully,

"I'd hypothesize your behavior as the fact that no one who you have worked with seems interested in your personal life"

It was true. The majority of people either already knew what happened to her mother, or didn't care. Tony had long since stopped taking the thing personally.

But never once had anyone ask her what happened to her mother. Wizarding World knew. The mundane world didn't care, as Tony had been a playboy for a long time, or they presumed her to be irresponsible conquest of Tony Stark's who couldn't afford to raise a child, or that she had died. And then there was Steve. A man out of his time, trying to adjust in the new world, while also being part of a group of misfits with superhuman abilities.

But why didn't she call him afterward?

She was so damn busy with work. She had told herself repeatedly. She felt a lot worse for leaving Steve hanging, but for some reason, she still couldn't forget him. His blue eyes, they were beautiful. And his 40's mannerisms. his speech and vocabulary. 

She chuckled softly. Once she was done here, she was going to take a vacation and see Steve first of all. Steve was a nice challenge, one that she wasn't going to let go of anytime soon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm stuck with two children trapped in adult bodies. Lord help me"  
> -Virginia "Pepper" Potts

Pepper entered the office building to see the common regular crowd. She smiled at a few, greeted them for the morning.

"Ms. Potts" an employee approached her "the papers you asked for"

"Thank you, Stacy" Pepper smiled, taking the file and entered the lift, pressing the button for the second topmost floor, Rose's office.

"JARVIS?" she asked, while still in the lift "What time did Rose leave the office last night?"

"Ms. Stark is still in the office, Ms. Potts. Sleeping, I might add"

Pepper frowned

She was supposed to go home, not sleep in the office. But then again, like father like daughter. The alien invasion had changed them both. Tony was spending whatever free time he had in his lab and Rose barely came home. She either spent most of her nights in the office or at her personal lab or (somewhat rarely) in some stranger's bed.

With a deep sigh, Pepper shook her head and exited as the lift opened at the desired floor. She curtly nodded at Brittany and then entered the office. Since Pepper started dating Tony and Rose became the CEO, she had appointed a secondary PA/receptionist to mostly reduce Pepper's work pressure.

Entering her room, she found Rose sleeping on the couch, curled up. Her blazer was on top of her as a blanket, her pumps on the edge of the couch.

Pepper looked at her, worried. She walked to the young CEO and settled near her head, softly caressing her hair. It was still early for everyone to come and appointments to begin.

Pepper stopped as Rose twitched for a second under her touch but then went back to sleep

"Rose?" she called "Rosie?"

It took a couple of tries before Rose finally got up. She sat on the couch, rubbing her eyes as she let out a yawn

"What time is it?" she groaned

"It is 8.17 am, Ms. Stark. Your first appointment for today is at 11.15 am" Jarvis replied

"Huh" Rose muttered, rubbing sleep from her eyes

"You were to go home" Pepper frowned, handing Rose a mug of coffee "Not sleep in the office"

"Sorry" Rose answered, still sounding sleepy, though not sounding sorry at all "I started working on the suit"

"Tony's making you work on his suit again?"

"Not dad's suit. Mine" she answered and then looked at Pepper "Dragon leather is good and all, but I need something sturdier"

"I don't think there's going to be any more alien invasions" Pepper sternly said

"There wasn't supposed to be one, in the first place. You never know" Rose answered "Besides, I needed something to do"

"And the projects?"

"Done already"

Pepper sighed "When did you sleep last night?"

"Not as early as I would nor as late as you expect," Rose said

Pepper frowned harder at Rose's cryptic answer.

"Ms. Stark went to sleep at exactly 4.23 this morning"

"Traitor" Rose muttered, keeping the now empty coffee mug on the table "I'm fine, Pep"

"No you are not." Pepper said "You need a day off from everything"

Rose looked at her

"Really. I can cover up for a day"

"Or I can go home, get showered and then come back"

"Rose, a single day of rest wouldn't exactly kill you. Besides you and Tony haven't exactly spent some time together lately. Go have some father-daughter time"

"I.." Rose raised her finger to say something but stopped "You know what? You have a point"

Pepper smiled, relieved. Compared to her father, Rose was much easier to handle. She got up and picket her blazer

"But if anything comes up, anything at all, you call me"

"I will, Ms. Stark." Pepper smiled "Is there anything else?"

"That'll be all, Ms. Potts" Rose smiled "But if some-"

"Go home, Rosie. I got it covered" Pepper smiled.

"Right" Rose nodded once and then walked out

* * *

She drove home and entering, tossed the keys on the coffee table

"Dad?" she called, but no response

"Mr. Stark is asleep in his lab, mam" Jarvis chimed in

"Thank you" Rose smiled and quickly taking off her pumps, rushed downstairs to the lab

She really had to swallow her laugh when she saw Tony lying on the floor, wearing pieces of suit haphazardly and sleeping with mouth open. He was even snoring and drooling a little

"How long was he awake, JARVIS?"

"Nearly 72 hours, miss"

Rose winced. She was awake for 48 roughly and she needed about 1 kg caffeine to even let her stand straight. She quietly entered, settled on the floor and shook him awake

"why don't you sleep in your bedroom?" she asked

"Hey you are home" Tony croaked, yawning and stretching

"Yeah. Pep kicked me out" Rose chuckled "Still sleepy?"

"No. Not really." Tony got up and sat on the floor. "Why?"

"Pepper said we could use some bonding time"

Tony scoffed but there was a smile on his face. He stood up and started removing the suit pieces

"Did you see the news?"

"Uh..no. why?" Rose slightly frowned, looking up at her father "did they again say that I was missing for a couple of months because of the 16th pregnancy?"

Rose was just like her father. Her habit of sleeping around was nothing new to either of them nor Pepper nor public. And every time she was seen with a little extra weight or after some brief gap, her pregnancy rumors would start circulating.

"No" Tony chuckled "It's Mandarin"

"Who?"

She didn't recall anything in the news about any 'Mandarin'. Tony shrugged.

"And they renamed War Machine to Iron Patriot"

Rose blinked at him "Pardon?"

"I'm going to meet Rhodey."

"Sweet. I'll come"

Rose stood up but stopped when she saw Tony giving her a look

"What?"

"Why do want to come?"

"Can't I come to spend some time with favorite uncle and father?" Rose snorted "Get showered"

* * *

Rose ran to her room, took a relaxing bath and walked into her walking closet, the TV in her room running a news channel as it usually did. And now she was really interested after 'Mandarin' and 'Iron Patriot'

_"…we seem to be back, let's recap some of the frightening developments... American airwaves were hijacked... The nation remains on high alert. All attempts to find the Mandarin have so far proved unsuccessful."_

"Change" Rose exclaimed, pulling on her lingerie. The channel changed to something else

_" In response to this terrorist event is a newly minted resource. I know him as Colonel James Rhodes."_

Rose stopped and peeked at the TV, where Rhodey entered in his armor suit

_" The American people will soon know him as the Iron Patriot."_

"Huh?" Rose muttered. This was Iron Patriot? she just stared at the screen. Okay, the military had officially lost it. 

"Jarvis, put something good"

She'd rather talk to Rhodey about this than see that on TV. The channel changed again this time to some talk show

_"And how is President Ellis responding?"_

_"By taking the guy they call War Machine and giving him a paint job. The same suit, but painted red, white and blue. Look at that. And they also renamed him, "_ Iron Patriot. _" You know, just in case the paint was too subtle."_

* * *

After dressing in a cute yellow wrap dress with a black bow belt. She tied her hair into a high ponytail and pulled some black lace wedges just in time to see Tony exit his room, ready as well

They went to a casual diner-bar where Rhodey met them

"It tested well with focus groups, all right?" Rhodey reasoned when they raised the topic

Tony scoffed

"Yeah sure, but Iron Patriot?" Rose raised a brow

" "I am Iron Patriot!" it sucks." Tony gruffly said

"Listen. "War Machine" was a little too aggressive. All right?" Rhodey added

"Whatever you say" Tony shrugged

"This sends a better message." Rhodey added but knew that neither of the two was going to buy it, which made him sigh

"So, what's really going on?" Tony asked "With the Mandarin."

"the new terrorist?" Rose asked, sipping her drink, a classic beer

"Yeah" Tony nodded then looked at Rhodey "Seriously, can we talk about this guy?"

"It's classified information, Tony." Rhodey said but then he noticed the look the father-daughter gave him and he sighed again, lowering his voice "Okay, there have been nine bombings."

"Nine?" Rose asked. Didn't the news say there were 3?

"The public only knows about three." Rhodey added "But here's the thing, nobody can ID a device. There's no bomb casings."

"You know we can help." Tony said "Just ask. I got a ton of new tech. I got a prehensile suit. It also got bomb disposal. It catches explosions in mid-air."

Rose picked up from there "A stronger exoskeleton and magically boosted. And my suit is somewhat battle-ready too, by the way. A few bolts to tinker but it can do basics" she added, finishing her drink

Rhodey looked at them both and then narrowed his eyes "When's the last time either of you got a good night's sleep?"

"Einstein slept three hours a year." Rose chirped and Tony agreed

"Look what he did."

"People are concerned about you both, guys" Rhodey added "I'm concerned about you. Don't look away, Rosie. I know you are barely functioning too"

"You're going to come at us like that?" Tony chuckled

"No, look, I'm not tr-" Rhodey paused as Rose's phone went off

"Its Pep, excuse me," she said and answered "Hey…..okay..uh-huh…I'll be there right now" and she hung up

"What's up?" tony asked

"Some company called AIM wants us to fund their research. Pep wants me to handle it"

"Ok" Tony nodded

"Gotta go" She smiled, picking up her stuff. She leaned, gave Tony and Rhodey each a kiss on the cheek and left

* * *

She apparated at an alley close to the office and entered. People and employees equally greeted her as she headed for her office. She appeared on her floor and saw Pepper walking to her office, Happy with her

"Tony has got them in his basement. They're wearing party hats. This is an asset that we can put to use."

"Uh-huh. So, you're suggesting that Rose replaces the entire janitorial staff with robots." Pepper nodded, half-listening as she took a folder from another employee "Thank you."

"What I'm saying is that the human element of human resources is our biggest point of vulnerability. We should start phasing it out immediately." Happy replied and Rose decided to interrupt the moment

"Good thing I'm not a complete human, then, huh?"

Pepper and Happy turned around and looked at her approach

"That was fast," Pepper noticed

Rose just gave her an innocent smile

Pepper took a huge breath and then turned to Happy "Look, Happy, I am thrilled that you are now the Head of Security. Okay?"

"It is the perfect position for you," Rose added

"Thank you." Happy smiled

"However..." Pepper began but Happy interrupted her

"I do appreciate it."

"...since you've taken the post..."

"You don't have to thank me."

"...we've had a rise in staff complaints of 300%."

"Thank you."

"Hap, it's not a compliment." Rose softly said

"It's not..." Happy stopped then was about to say something when Brittany approached them

"Ms. Stark, your 4:00 is here."

"Thank you." Rose smiled at her

"Did you clear this 4:00 with me?" Happy asked

"Happy, we'll talk about this later" Pepper said 

"Hey" Rose started " How about I get this out of the way and we can discuss the whole situation?"

Happy looked at her and then nodded "I'd like that"

"Great"

"I'll just...uh...stick around"

"Okay" Rose smiled and turned to walk to her office, Pepper with her

"Really? 300%?"

"Unfortunately. He's a stickler to rules" Pepper admitted

"I'll talk to him" Rose muttered and then looked at her, "Thought you were going to cover up for me today"

"I still was. But then this very annoying thing came up."

"How so?" Rose asked

"Before Tony hired me, I used to work with him and he used to ask me out all the time, so it's a little awkward."

"Ex-issues" Rose hummed with a teasing smile "How do you want me to tear him? Royally, superficially or subtly?"

Pepper gave her a look

"Don't murder him"

Rose raised her hands in a placating manner "he already sounds fishy" she added and entered her office, Pepper in tow

In her office stood a handsome man, maybe a little younger than Tony. He had dark blonde hair, nice grey eyes and stubble. He was kinda good looking

"Pepper" he greeted with a smile

"Killian?" Pepper asked

"You look great. You look really great." Killian said

"God, you look great. L... l... I...What on earth have you been doing?"

"Nothing fancy. Just five years in the hands of physical therapists." Killian smiled

Okay. Rose was awkward-ed. They were talking like she wasn't even there. Rose softly cleared her throat and jabbed Pepper as discretely as possible

"Oh. I'm sorry. Killian, this is Rose Stark, CEO of Stark industries" Pepper introduced her

"good to meet you, Mr. Killian" Rose smiled, shaking hands with him "I've heard about you"

"Good things I hope" Killian chuckled "And please, call me Aldrich."

Rose nodded "So, Pepper mentioned something about your research"

Killian made both the women take a seat and started explaining his research

"The President's ban on "immoral" biotech research, my think tank now has a little something in the pipeline. It's an idea we like to call EXTREMIS. I'm gonna turn your lights down."

Rose waited

Even after trying a couple of times when nothing happened, he looked sheepishly at Rose, who mentally laughed. No one could control Jarvis unless he wants them to

"Sorry. JARVIS is just a little temperamental" she meekly answered "J? dim the lights buddy"

"Of course, Ms. Stark"

The lights dimmed. Pepper shot Rose a look which the young CEO completely ignored

"Regard the human brain." Killian started, tossing three metallic balls on the table. The balls blinked and a hologram of the universe appeared

"Uh... Wait, hold on, hold on." Killian muttered

"That's..." Pepper muttered

"That's the universe. My bad." Killian chuckled "But if I do that..."

The image changed into something Rose had seen a couple of times. The neuronic version of the human brain

"That's the brain." Killian beamed "Strangely mimetic, though, wouldn't you say?"

Pepper opened her mouth to say something but stopped, looking at Rose. Killian looked at her too

"It's nothing I haven't seen, I'm afraid," Rose said with a soft smile. Something about Killian wasn't right. Her magic was making her edgy. The guy was not who he pretended to be, that was for sure

But despite that, Killian's smile didn't falter

"It's mine."

"What?" Rose asked, now mildly interested.

"This. You're inside my head." Killian chuckled "It's a live feed." He tapped at some device strapped behind his left ear and climbed on top of the table. Okay, rude. The coffee table was an imported one and cost way too much for some arrogant scientist to climb on it with shoes on without her permission. Rose didn't like Killian, she decided.

"Come on up, I'll prove it to you. Come on." and extended his hand to Rose. Rose looked at the hand for a second, before grabbing it and climbing on top of the table

"Now, pinch my arm."

Rose blinked twice. Was this guy serious? Rose spared a quick look at Pepper, who seemed equally surprised

Killian's chuckle got both of their attention "I can take it. Pinch me."

Rose shrugged and pinched his arm with her long nails and a certain spot on the brain hologram glowed for a second

"Was that the primary somatosensory cortex?" Rose asked

"Yes. It was" Killian chuckled "I didn't expect you to know, no offense"

Rose looked at him "I'm a scientist as well, Mr. Killian"

Killian nodded "But that is not what I wanted to show you. This is what I wanted to show you."

There was a beep as Killian zoomed in on a certain part

"Now, EXTREMIS harnesses our bioelectrical potential and it goes here. This is essentially an empty slot and what this tells us is that our mind, our entire DNA, in fact, is destined to be upgraded."

Rose kept a poker face as she absorbed everything in. Killian closed it and the two stepped down and took their seats back

"Imagine if you could hack into the hard drive of any living organism and recode its DNA."

"That would be incredible." Rose agreed as Killian beamed

"So?"

"Unfortunately, Mr. Killia-"

"Aldrich"

Rose stopped and blinked once "Right, sorry. Aldrich, unfortunately to my ears, it also sounds highly weaponizable. As in, enhanced soldiers, private armies, and dad is.." Rose stopped when she heard him chuckle

"Tony," he slightly shook his head "You know, I invited your father to join AIM 13 years ago. He turned me down. But something tells me now there's a new genius on the throne who doesn't have to answer to Tony anymore and who has slightly less of an ego."

Rose sucked in a breath. He just upgraded himself in her list of people who are 'complete assholes'

"You are half right, Mr. Killian. I may be the new genius on the throne but I'm still very much Tony Stark's daughter. His opinion always does matter to me and I'll be accountable to him. I'm the CEO, not the owner" She paused "It's gonna be a no. While your project here is quite amazing in itself, but altering a person's DNA can create mutants and enhanced persons. I think this world can handle only one Hulk. And what are the odds that a technology like this won't end up at the enemies hands? You can never be too careful." She again paused "Besides, I think human experimentation is still illegal. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say here"

Killian nodded with a soft smile

"Well, I can't say that I'm not disappointed." He stood up and so did Rose and Pepper "But then, as my father used to say, "Failure is the fog through which we glimpse triumph."

"That's very deep." Rose agreed

"Hmm."

"It's got a beautiful meaning" she added with a smile

"Well, I'm glad someone understood it. I never had any idea what it meant" Killian chuckled "He was kind of an idiot, my old man." He chuckled again "thank you for sparing some time out of your busy schedule, Ms. Stark"

"It's perfectly alright, Mr. Killian. I'm glad that people are trying new things out there" Rose smiled, shaking hands with him one last time. He nodded and looked at Pepper who stood behind Rose

"I'm sure I'll see you again, Pepper."

Pepper gave him a curt nod "Lemme walk you out, Aldrich"

And she left with him. Once they were gone, Rose looked at the ceiling once

"JARVIS, protocol 142A"

There was a soft click "Activated protocol 142A"

"Get me everything there is on Aldrich Killian"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just returned from my family vacation and I'm back to work. Comments, and kudos, keep 'em coming.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hey, should I make some ginger tea for Mandarin when he decides to show up? 'Cause you know, he got an invitation and who can refuse the great Tony Stark?"  
> -Rose Stark

And that was how Pepper found her. Sitting on the sofa, looking over some holographic info. Pepper craned her neck to read the name and then looked at Rose

"Why are you looking for Killian?"

Rose hummed and looked over her shoulder

"It's nothing" Rose answered and with a hand gesture, closed it all

"We should get going. It's about 5."

"Go ahead, I'll be there in 2"

But Pepper didn't move. She just folded her arms with a glare. Rose sighed, got up, put back her shoes, picked her purse

"Can we?"

* * *

Rose drove the two of them to their house

"So why were you looking into Killian's file?"

Rose kept her poker face then answered

"How long did you work for him?" she asked in return

"less than 2 years. Why? What's going on?"

"I don't like him"

"What do you mean?"

Rose took a deep breath

"Something about him is off." She spared Pepper a look "He's making my magic edgy"

Pepper's eyes slightly widened. That wasn't good. Her magic when reacted to something, then it was a warning sign

"Edgy as in?" Pepper prodded

"In a whole protective sense," Rose shrugged "Maybe it's nothing"

"Rose.."

"I was involved in an alien invasion less than a year ago. Maybe it's one of those aftermaths that show up late" Rose reasoned "Look, don't worry, okay. Maybe I was just going paranoid. It's probably nothing"

Pepper nodded with a gulp. She didn't like the way Rose talked about her magic and Killian. She knew that even if Rose didn't take those warning signs, she would definitely take some precautions.

And then her attention was grabbed by something.

Just outside the house was an enormous stuffed bunny

"What have you been up to, dad?" Rose muttered

"Maybe he did something he doesn't want us to find out about" Pepper guessed

"Probably" Rose agreed as the two women entered the house.

"We're sorry, we're late. We were…" Pepper paused and both the women stopped walking when they saw iron man lounging in their sitting room

"What the…" Rose trailed off "What is that?"

"You're wearing this in the house now?" Pepper demanded, "What is that, like, Mark 15?"

Pepper turned away to sit while Rose narrowed her eyes as her father checked the arm plate

"Something like that." He answered

"It's Mark 42" Rose answered, taking a seat close to Pepper herself

"Yeah whatever" Tony brushed it off "You know, everybody needs a hobby."

"Everybody's hobby doesn't usually include making a prehensile armor" Rose quipped

"Oh, and you have to wear your hobby in the living room?" Pepper sarcastically bit back

"Just breaking it in. You know, it's always a little pinchy in the gooey bag -at first, so..." Tony chuckled shaking his body a little, which got a laugh from Rose

"I know that feeling" Rose muttered, removing her own shoes. Tony snapped his metallic fingers at her and then moved to stand behind Pepper

"Well, hey, did you see your Christmas present?" he asked the redhead

"I think even Asgard can see it" Rose replied

Pepper chuckled, trying to suppress her laugh and Rose could practically see Tony frowning or rolling his eyes at her

The Pepper took a deep breath "Yes, I did. I...I don't know how I could've missed that Christmas present. Is it gonna fit through the door?"

"It's a good question. I got a team of guys coming tomorrow. They're gonna blow out that wall." Tony pointed at the front wall

"Okay."

"So, uh..."

"Where's my Christmas present?" Rose asked

Tony looked at her and Rose clearly figured out that he forgot. Was this guy even for real?

"It's waiting in your lab"

He didn't forget. That's weird.

"Okay" Rose drawled off, leaning back

"Tense? Good day? Huh?" Tony asked, walking towards the two

"Don't" Rose warned him as he walked past her and stood behind Pepper and started massaging her shoulder "Ooh, shoulders, a little knotty. Naughty girl."

"And that's my cue" Rose got up as quickly as possible and headed for her room. She quickly changed into some relaxing pajamas and a loose shirt and headed back downstairs to hear tony say

"Except there's been" he stuttered "a radiation leak."

Radiation leak?

"That's risky. I'll take my chances" And Pepper headed for the lab. Rose narrowed her eyes as Tony tried following her and Rose did

"At least, let me get you like, a hazmat suit you can..." Tony tried

"the fuck's going on?" Rose muttered, following Pepper and then suddenly yelped when the suit picked her up

"Put me down, dad"

"Maybe not. You are light. Lost some weight or something?"

"How about you put me down?"

Tony followed. Rose turned and stopped cold. Pepper was at the lab's door where Tony really was, wearing a modified controller on his face

"Busted." He muttered guiltily

"This is a new level of lame," Pepper said

"Sorry." Tony apologized

And then Rose noticed the empty plate

"You ate without us already?" Rose asked, "On a family night?"

"He was just..." Tony started, pointing at the new suit

"You mean you." Pepper raised a brow

"Well, yeah, I just mean we were just hosting you...both...while I finished up a little work."

Both the women scoffed in disbelief

"Uh-huh." They chorused

"And yes, I had a quick bite. I didn't know if you were coming home or you were having drinks with Aldrich Killian."

That got both their attention

"What?" they both demanded, eyes wide

"Aldrich Killian?" Pepper asked

"What, are you checking up on me?" Rose asked

"Happy was concerned." Tony reasoned

"No, you're spying on me. And Pep" Rose frowned, folding her arms

"I wasn't."

"I'm going to bed." Pepper said in a final tone

"Me too" Rose added

"Hold on." Tony said and both of them stopped "Come on. Pep? Rosie?" his voice dropped a little and he settled on the desk "Hey, I admit it. My fault. Sorry. I'm a piping hot mess. It's been going on for a while. I haven't said anything. Nothing's been the same since New York."

"Oh, really? I didn't notice that at all." Pepper said

"You experience things and then they're over, and you still can't explain them. Gods, aliens, other dimensions. I'm just a man in a can. The only reason I haven't cracked up is probably because of you both. Which is great. I love you both. I'm lucky for having two such beautiful women in my life. But honey, I can't sleep. You go to bed, I come down here. I do what I know. I tinker. I..." he sighed "Threat is imminent. And I have to protect the few things that I can't live without. That includes both of you. And my suits, they're, uh...Machines. They're part of me."

Pepper and Rose studied him with a long look

"They're a distraction," Pepper said

"Maybe." Tony sighed

Pepper swallowed slightly and exchanged a look with Rose, who tiredly nodded back

"I'm gonna take a shower," Pepper said

"Okay."

"And you're gonna join me."

"Better."

Rose tried not to gag.

"and I'll try to salvage some dinner" She chimed, running to the kitchen

* * *

After having whatever dinner rose could cook, the three retired to bed.

Rose slid under the covers and closed her eyes. She turned restlessly about the bed multiple times but sleep never came. With a grunt, she stood up and walking to her potions closet, pulled a sleeping potion and drank a gulp. She returned to her bed and soon sleep took over.

* * *

No. Rose's breathing hardened as she looked around. The destruction and death. The buildings were huge rubble. A loud screech made her look up and her eyes widened at the plethora of flying slugs coming out of a familiar wormhole.

"Rose"

A shiver ran down her spine at the groaning voice. She looked around, trying to find the source when she finally spotted him.

Tony was among some huge debris, barely moving. Rose slowly made her way to her father and then gasped. He was bleeding through his head and lips. There were some thick bruises under his right eye too.

Rose's eyes widened and pressed her hands on her mouth to suppress the gasp.

The first thing she noticed was his arc reactor blinking furiously, fading to black. And then a Chitauri weapon that had impaled him. Tears started spilling from her eyes. Before she could reactor further, Rose heard another groan. Rose heard another groan. She turned around and a choked sob escaped her. Steve laid there and the whole Avenger team behind him.

"You let him take us"

Rose whipped around and looked at her father

"You could have prevented this, but you didn't. Why, Rosie?"

"I…I…." Rose sobbed. An inhuman screech startled her. She turned around to see a whole horde of Chitauri, pointing their weapons at her

"No" Rose whispered, trying to step back but stumbled on some rubble, resulting in her falling down. The aliens closed in on her and the one right in front of her snarled before he pointed his stick at her.

"No. Stop"

The stick started glowing as Rose quickly covered her eyes. Then there was a female scream and it took a moment for Rose to realize that it was she who was screaming.

* * *

"ROSE!"

"What!" Rose bolted awake as she sat on her bed. She was panting like she had just run a marathon and was completely covered in sweat. Her thin sleepwear was clinging to her body because of that sweat. Her hair was all tangled with some part sticking to her face.

"Drink this"

Someone pressed glass to her lips and tilted it as water entered her mouth. Once the glass was empty, it was removed and someone cupped her face, coming in her view.

"Pepper?" she muttered, swallowing

"How're you feeling?" she softly asked

"I..I…Dad?" she whispered looking worriedly at her "Where's dad?"

"Ro-"

"No. Pepper, where's dad?" she asked, worry starting to increase

"Shhhh" Pepper cupped her face again "you were just having a nightmare, sweetness. Your dad's just fine. He's in his room. Okay?"

Pepper almost winced when Rose didn't look convinced

"Uh…" Pepper muttered and then looked at the ceiling "JARVIS, where's Tony?"

"Mr. Stark is in his room, Ms. Potts"

"See" Pepper looked at Rose "Like I said. Your dad's safe. It was a dream. Nothing real."

"I…" Rose looked around still a little restless "I screamed"

"you did. But that was because of that nightmare. It's fine, Rosie. It's all fine"

Rose nervously nodded, hesitance still very much showing.

"Can I get another glass o-"

"Sure!"

Pepper reached and poured another glass of water for Rose and handed it to her, who greedily drank from it. Once done, Pepper took the glass back and kept it on the bedside table as Rose wiped her mouth.

"Are we good?"

"Yeah"

Pepper nodded with a smile when Rose noticed something off about it

"What's wrong?" Rose asked after a minute. Pepper opened her mouth but Rose interrupted her

"Don't lie"

Pepper inhaled sharply

"We had an argument" Pepper answered "I'd rather sleep on the couch than with him tonight"

Rose nodded and then shifted over

"I've got space" Rose smiled, patting the bedding next to her "And frankly, I'd rather not sleep alone tonight, not anymore"

Pepper beamed and then slipped into the bed next to her boss and slipped under the covers. Rose reached and switched the lights off, slipped into the covers as well.

* * *

The next day, both the women left for office at the same time. And as soon as Rose got a couple of spare minutes, she placed a call

_"Hello?"_

"Steve?" Rose asked then let out a relieved sigh "thank god you answered"

_"Rose? Is everything okay? Are you hurt?"_

"no. Not yet" she chuckled "But I needed to call you"

" _why?_ "

Rose took a deep breath "Majorly because I left you hanging there in Manhattan with no explanation whatsoever. I'm really sorry, Steve. The work just showed up and the Board of Directors started demanding my presence and then asking me to sort out my priorities and I w-...ugh"

_"Hey hey hey!"_ Steve chuckled _"Relax. It's fine. I understand, trust me, I do"_ he chuckled again _"You run a company. It is important to you"_

"Thanks" Rose whispered back

_"but what I don't get it is why called me to apologize for what happened 8 months ago?"_

Rose's face warmed up. Of course, she hadn't called him in 8 months. She hadn't called any Avenger in the past 8 months. And now she called him out of the blue just to make sure he was okay. What the hell was wrong here with her?

"Well I…you know….I was ju-"

There was a knock on the door and Pepper entered. She had a look of urgency on her face

"I'm sorry, Steve, but I gotta go. Business calls"

_"Yeah okay. I'll s-"_

But Rose hung up as she faced Pepper "what happened?"

"You, me and Tony. We are going on a vacation"

Rose gave Pepper a long look, but the redhead didn't seem like she was going to change her mind anytime soon

* * *

"What?" Pepper asked, driving, as she noticed Rose looking restless

"This is ridiculous" Rose muttered

"No it's not" Pepper argued

"Pep, we are taking a vacay in the middle of everything. It's not even weekend"

"Well, you and Tony need some of it, okay. You both are clearly not sleeping and Rose, how many times did you need to use sleep-inducing stuff"

Rose snorted.

"You need a break"

"Maybe what we need is a psych eval" Rose muttered to herself

"What?" Pepper gave her a look

Rose sharply inhaled

"I think it's PTSD" Rose softly said

"I thought you were okay" Pepper looked at Rose "the episodes stopped"

"But this whole Manhattan thing triggered it again. A-and I think dad having the s-same issue"

Pepper sharply inhaled but said nothing as she pulled at their house.

"I'm gonna get a shower" Rose muttered, rushing to her room. Pepper took another deep breath as she made her way to her and Tony's bedroom

* * *

Rose sighed deeply as she felt warm water on her skin. Her muscles were a little knotty and she swore that if it all went well, she was going a have a complete day for spa.

Rose softly started craning her neck to release a little tension.

Her phone buzzed. She quickly wiped her wet hand to the towel and picked it up, really hoping it wasn't some last moment business call. And thankfully it wasn't. But it was something worse.

There was a notification on her phone which said

"Tony Stark's ex-bodyguard hurt in a Mandarin attack" was the news headline

"What the hell?" Rose muttered and quickly switching the water off, wrapped a towel around her body and hair and literally ran out

"JARVIS, turn the news on"

The TV switched into some random news channel

_"We're hoping he'll give us the reaction...His reaction to the latest attack."_ The reporter said

There was literally a sea of reporters outside the hospital, all waiting for Tony to exit. Happy was hurt? Why didn't he call her? Or Pepper?

The reporters clamored just as Tony walked out, all rushing for his attention

_"Mr. Stark, hi there."_

_"Mr. Stark.."_

_"Our sources are telling us that all signs are pointing to another Mandarin attack. Anything else you can tell us?"_

But Tony just ignored everyone. Rose was thankful that he wasn't snapping. Good. But then some jerk off reporter came into the spotlight

_"Hey Stark"_

Tony stopped and looked at the gum-chewing man

_"When is somebody gonna kill this guy?"_ he then shrugged _"I'm just saying."_

Rose's eyes widened as she fell on the bed

"Please tell me he didn't ask that"

"I'm afraid miss, but he did"

"The question was rhetorical" Rose muttered under her breath

And it was bad. No worse, because it had gotten Tony's attention.

_"Is that what you want?"_ Tony asked, facing the man _"Here's a little holiday greeting I've been wanting to send to the Mandarin."_

"Dad, no. Don't do this" Rose muttered.

_"I just didn't know how to phrase it until now."_ Tony removed his sunglasses and then stared right into the man's camera

_"My name is Tony Stark and I'm not afraid of you. I know you're a coward. So I've decided that you just died, pal._ _I'm gonna come to get the body. There's no politics here. It's just good old-fashioned revenge. There's no Pentagon,_ _it's just you and me. And on the off chance you're a man, here's my home address. 10880 Malibu Point. I'll leave the door unlocked."_ Tony paused and then looked at the man _"That's what you wanted, right?"_ And then in a swift motion, grabbed the man's phone and threw it at the nearest wall

_"Bill me."_

And he got into his car

"Where is dad's idea of self-preservation?" she asked

"I believe that the idea of self-preservation lacks in the Stark family"

Rose frowned, looking at the ceiling

"you don't need to be so snarky about it"

With a deep sigh, Rose got up and changed into a nice pair of jeans, a Henley and a hoodie jacket and started packing a small travel bag.

"On a completely related note, JARVIS put the house on lockdown for anyone who isn't authorized by me or dad. My idiot dad just fucking threatened a terrorist."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Can I have a break? I'm talking to you, Universe"  
> -Rose Stark

About 30 minutes later, Rose made her way to the basement to her lab. It was just a floor below Tony's.

Originally Tony had wanted her to take the upper lab, but she preferred the lower one because explosions in there caused much less damage comparatively.

Rose stopped when she saw Tony in his lab, sitting idly on the table. She took a breath and entered the room and wasn't surprised when Tony didn't notice her. She crept behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck dipping her chin on his shoulder

"House is on lockdown" she muttered

Tony took a deep breath "He pissed me off"

"I don't know what to say" Rose replied, softly headbutting him, which made him chuckle "How's Happy?"

"Badly injured. He's there in the ICU and I just threatened a terrorist and…"

"Shhh" Rose whispered

"What's going on with me Rosie?"

"You were pissed. It's explainable"

"Is it?" Tony turned to look at her

"It is" Rose agreed "Hell I threatened Tom Riddle all those years ago. You think that was smart?"

"That was suicidal" Tony snorted, looking back on the floor

"But he pissed me" Rose reasoned "But the point is, I came on top. You can too, Daddy"

Rose felt Tony relax under her touch. She only called him daddy when she wanted to get some work done or was buttering him up, but it was neither occasion.

Tony took another deep breath and nodded

"What were you going to do?"

"See if I can figure out something"

"I knew you'd say that" Rose muttered and looked at the ceiling

"J?"

Suddenly several holographic papers appeared before them

"A Mandarin database for you, miss, drawn from S.H.l.E.L.D., FBI and CIA intercepts." Jarvis paused "Initiating virtual crime scene reconstruction."

Tony gave Rose a look of disbelief and kissed her temple

"This is why you are my favorite daughter"

"I'm your only daughter" Rose laughed "Well unless you have another secret child I have no clue about. Do you?"

Tony scoffed as Rose pulled back her arms and he stood up

"Okay. What have we got here?" Tony walked to the middle of the scene, Rose taking his position on the table

Tony looked around at the movie poster

"So, talk to me. What can you make out?" Rose asked

"The name is an ancient Chinese war mantle meaning "adviser to the king." And several other things. South American insurgency tactics. Talks like a Baptist preacher." He muttered "There's lots of pageantry going on here. Lots of theatres. Close." All the posters and bright visuals closed, leaving the rest of the crime scene

"The heat from the blast was in excess of 3,000 degrees Celsius." JARVIS provided "Any subjects within 12.5 yards were vaporized instantly."

"No bomb parts found in a three-mile radius of the Chinese Theatre?" Rose asked, slightly frowning

"No, mam."

"Talk to me, Happy," Tony muttered. Happy's holographic form appeared on the virtual ground

"When is a bomb not a bomb?" Tony muttered

Rose deeply concentrated when she heard that statement. A bomb is a bomb all the time. When is it not?

"J? was magic involved?" Rose asked. Tony looked at her and apparently the same thought had stuck to him. And a Bombarda Maxima can cause a big explosion without any casing. A Bombarda maxima cast by a powerful wizard can cause an explosion _that_ big without any casing.

"No, miss"

Rose frowned. That didn't make her feel any better as she scanned the crime scene

"Is it only me or does it seem like Happy's pointing at something there?" Rose asked, pointing at the direction Happy's finger was pointing. Tony walked to the direction and looked at the spot where a couple of dog tags were lying

"Any military victims?" Tony asked

"Not according to public record, sir."

"Bring up the thermogenic signatures again," Tony asked and made his way back to the table and sat next to Rose.

"Factor in 3,000 degrees."

"The Oracle cloud has completed analysis." And a temperature record of the temperature came up

"Accessing satellites and plotting the last 12 months of thermogenic occurrences now," JARVIS added. The map changed to that of the whole country and every place with an excess of heat were marked with temperature gradients next to them

"Take away everywhere that there's been a Mandarin attack," Tony ordered and the places without Mandarin attacks vanished

"Nope." Tony muttered, vanishing others before his eyes found the one he was looking for "That."

All the other spots vanished except the one Tony had pointed at.

"Are you sure that's not one of his?" Tony asked

"It predates any known Mandarin attack. The incident was the use of a bomb to assist a suicide."

"Bring her around," Tony asked. The other places vanished except that one, which zoomed on

"The heat signature is remarkably similar. 3,000 degree Celsius."

"And who was the person who committed suicide?" Rose asked as the profile of the man appeared.

"That's two military guys," Rose muttered

Tony snorted and looked at Rose

"We've never been to Tennessee, have we Rosie?"

"not that I remember" Rose chuckled

"JARVIS?" Tony looked at the ceiling

"Creating a flight plan for Tennessee."

And there was a ding-dong!

"Are we still at ding-dong?" Tony frowned and looked at Rose "You said we're supposed to be on total...security lockdown." Tony scoffed, jumping off the table and heading for the door "Come on, I threatened a terrorist."

Rose was hot on his heels

"There's only so much I can do, sir when you give the world's press your home address." Jarvis bit back

"Ouch" Rose muttered, rushing upstairs. There she saw Tony entering back into the house, following by an average looking brunette.

"Okay, look, I need to be alone with you, someplace not here." She said, "It's urgent."

"Normally, I'd go for that sort of thing, but now I'm in a committed relationship."

"It's..." she started when she saw Rose there. Rose frowned when she felt the woman's eyes all over her

"Isn't she a little young for you?"

Tony chocked and Rose's face heated

"Not her" Tony managed "That's my daughter, Rose"

The woman smiled, face flushing, as she shyly waved at her. Rose softly smiled back.

"Actually I'm in a relationship with.."

And then two black duffel bags were tossed from above which barely missed hitting Tony

"with her." He finished, looking above

"Is somebody there?" Pepper asked, coming down

"Yeah," Tony answered, fidgeting his fingers "It's Maya Hansen."

Rose raised a brow at her father who easily ignored her. Hadn't he stated earlier that he didn't know her?

"Ah..." the brunette smirked

"Old botanist pal that I used to know, barely," Tony called as Rose came to stand next to him. Tony quickly turned and faced Maya

"Please don't tell me there's a 12-year-old kid waiting in the car that I've never met."

Rose looked at her father in surprise. So Maya was that type of friend

"He's 13." Maya corrected. Rose almost chocked on the air but she swore that Tony's look was absolutely priceless

"No," she quickly added, "I need your help."

"But, what for? Why now?"

"Because I read the papers and frankly, I don't think you'll last the week."

"I'll be fine."

The footsteps sounded as Pepper came down

"..with Happy in the hospital, I didn't know we were expecting guests."

"We weren't." tony replied

"And old girlfriends," Pepper added

"She's not, really." Tony countered "No, not really. I..."

"It was just one night." Maya butted in

"That's how you did it, isn't it?" Pepper looked at Tony

"It was a great night," Tony replied. Rose almost winced. He was just making it worse

Pepper smiled and looked at Maya

"You saved yourself a world of pain."

"What?" Tony asked

"Trust me." Pepper smiled at Maya then looked at Tony "We're going out of town."

"Okay. We've been through this."

And the two started arguing. Maya looked as uncomfortable as Rose did

"does it happen often?"

Rose almost jumped when she found that Maya had sided closely towards her

"Not like this" Rose replied.

Still uncomfortable, Maya started looking around when her eyes settled on Pepper's Christmas gift in the living room

"Is... Is that normal?" she asked, pointing at the rabbit

Before Rose could answer, Pepper, did

"Sadly, that is very normal"

"Yes, this is normal!" Tony exclaimed "It's a big bunny. Relax about it"

And they resumed arguing

"I'm really debating if I should intervene or get some popcorn" Rose muttered

Maya scoffed and turned around to look at the house. Anywhere but at the arguing couple

"Guys?" she called after a while

Rose took a sharp breath, pinching her nose

"Pepper? Dad?" she tried but the couple were too engrossed in their argument

"Um…Rose, is it?"

"huh" Rose turned around and looked at the brunette, who was looking at the TV

"Do we need to worry about that?" Maya asked

Rose looked at the TV and her eyes widened. A nuke was heading for them!

"Break these two!" Rose muttered and rushed to the balcony and closed her eyes, trying to conjure as big of a shield as she could to protect the front part of the house.

And then the missile came.

Rose grunted hard. The missile came in touch with the shield and exploded, but it did wear her out to handle a missile explosion.

"ROSE!"

At another whizzing sound, Rose turned to her right and she paled. Another missile was heading from that direction. And before Rose could move her shield to that direction, the missile hit the pillar right below her and exploded.

Rose tried to apparate as the floor below her started falling but something hit her hard on the head. Rubble. Rose tried conjuring another shield but it started flickering before it vanished and something hit her on the chest. And then her head hit something very hard and everything around her started going fuzzy. Rose tried calling her magic to react, but then her body hit the water surface and everything went black.

* * *

Washington DC, SHIELD Headquarters

Steve grunted, finishing his boxing routine in the SHIELD gym. It had been a normal day for him. He hadn't got any missions as of late, but he still preferred to be in up shape.

Once done, he removed bandages from his hands and threw them on the bench. He gazed down at his phone. Nothing.

Which made him sigh.

He didn't know what to do. Or feel.

After returning to the surface from ice, Rose had quickly captured his interest and attention. She was so beautiful that words couldn't define her. Confidant, enigmatic and respected. And he remembered the first time he saw her- at the gym. She was a fighter. And had extraordinary powers. And on top of all that, ran her family company, a businesswoman.

Steve wouldn't admit it aloud and it was something about Rose that attracted him towards her. She was a Stark in all but looks, but at the same time, she was more considerate and sweet and feisty.

He was still surprised that she had actually yelled at her own father after the stunt he had pulled with the nuke and the wormhole.

He still remembered the way she squealed at the sight of the ice cream shop and never missed a chance to tease him. Unlike Tony, in his opinion, she tried to be as discreet with her powers as she could.

But then he had ruined their budding acquaintance by asking her about her mother. He was later informed by Natasha that though nobody knew who was Rose's mother in reality, though many presumed her to be dead. And he felt like apologizing for it. But then she left without a word. For eight months.

He had contemplated calling her on many occasions and had gone as far as almost leaving her a voicemail but then he chickened out. And then out of the blue, she called him, as if he was okay.

That was weird. But he had assured her that he was fine. And before he could say something more she had hung up saying something related to her business came up. And it was radio silence since then as well.

He was attracted to her. Even Peggy told him so. And she told him that if that was the case, he should chase her and tell her the truth. She wanted him to move on. She already had. And somewhere, he wanted too.

It was decided. No matter what, Steve was going to call Rose and tell her. Whatever may be the outcome, he was at least going to ask her out on a date or something, irrespective of the fact whether she felt the same or not.

Steve picked his gym and bag and quickly changing back into his casuals, he walked out.

"Rogers"

He turned around and spotted Natasha approaching him. She had a very unreadable expression on her

"What happened?" he asked

"With me. Now"

And Steve followed. She led him to Fury's room where news was playing. Fury spared him a glance, but then looked back at the TV

It looked like a house, or mansion, built on top of a cliff over the sea, blasted and destroyed.

_"…attack has been speculated to be orchestrated by the terrorist Mandarin. Earlier today, Iron Man, billionaire, and ex-CEO of Stark Industries, Tony Stark, had openly threatened Mandarin after his former bodyguard was gravely injured in a mandarin attack._

_As of now, the better part of the Stark Mansion in Malibu has been destroyed with military-grade missiles of unknown origin. According to the reports, out of the four people who were present in the house at that time, only two of them have made it out. Dr. Maya Hansen and Ms. Pepper Potts being the survivors. Neither of the Starks has been found as they have been reported to fall into the sea along with the huge amount of debris. It's been 3 hours since the attack and seeing the complexity of damage, both Tony Stark and his daughter Rose Stark, the current CEO of Stark Industries, are presumed dead. Final re-"_ and the TV was switched off.

Steve felt a chill run down his spine. Rose and Tony were dead?

"We should check it out" Steve muttered

"We can't." fury replied "Mandarin is not a concern of SHIELD. They are a problem of the American government"

Steve frowned at him "Two of the Avengers are dead!" he exclaimed, "and you don't want to see if they really are or not?"

"They are presumed dead, Steve," Natasha said "For all we know, they could have made it out"

Steve frowned at her. Before he could say anything, Fury spoke

"I'll see if I can find something out. The Starks are hard to kill, Rogers." He took a deep breath and a few steps forward "I do care about the avengers. And I'm not going to let two of my best to die. Not so easily" and he walked out.

Steve took a deep breath and walked out. Did the universe really hate him that much?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Seriously, men need to learn to accept 'no' as an answer from a woman. That's no reason to bomb a woman's house, kidnap ad taunt her. That won't change her mind. And I'll still not fund your research, Killian"  
> -Rose Stark

Rose slowly came to consciousness. Her eyelids felt heavy and a severe throbbing pain erupted from somewhere behind her head, making her groan. A headache. That was just beautiful. It felt as if Thor was hammering on her head with Mjolnir. That wouldn't happen at all, but it was by far one of the worst headaches she had ever had.

She laid there, making out her surroundings. So far, she could tell she was somewhere alone. The sight rancid smell of salt indicated somewhat close proximity to the sea or ocean.

She took a few deep breaths, calming and trying to open her eyes. A feat that she managed after 10 minutes. She slowly raised her head and looked around. It was all very dark. She could hardly make her surroundings, her vision quite blurry. A concussion. Lovely

Concentrating and wincing at every move, Rose managed to get up, only to fall down face first. Okay, her body was way weaker than she had anticipated

"Take your time. But please, don't break that beautiful face of yours"

Rose could swear that she had heard that voice somewhere. But then again she would meet so many people almost every day it was hard. The speaker could easily have been a face in the crowd or President's PA. She let a small string of curses under her breath as she tried getting up. Her arms wobbled under her body weight. Someone, the speaker, chuckled.

After trying very hard, she finally managed to make it back to sit upright on the floor, against the platform she was earlier on. Her head rolled back as she tried to calm her speeding heart. She could hardly make out the silhouette of the speaker.

Rose didn't know how long she was lying there like that, but it very long, that she knew. she had subconsciously noticed the speaker leave somewhere about 10 minutes or 2 hours after he made his presence known to her

By the time she finally came to her senses, it was quite dark. A soft old breeze filtered in through and hit her on her face. She groaned and slowly opened her eyes and looked around for the first time. Within the next few moments, things became a lot more clearer. It looked like a dungeon cell. Kind of like the ones Malfoys had.

Her first thought was Tony and Pepper. Were they okay? Were they hurt? Rose closed her eyes, trying to spread her magic to detect anything. To her dismay, her magic started flickering before it collapsed. Great so her body was so weak, that couldn't even perform a simple searching spell.

Time for plan B, then.

She got up, wincing at every spike of pain and walked to the door and held the bars. The whole aisle looked empty. With a deep shaky sigh, she went back to the platform and settled. Some of her pink gradient hair fell on her shoulder for her to notice that they were stained red.

Good god. It was going to take a lot of hard work to remove blood from her hair. Her body felt weaker every second. she had to find a way to recharge and get the hell out of this hellhole. Moments like this, she regretted not carrying a portable potions pack with her. Then again, how many people anticipate their house being blown by terrorists.

She heard a distant clanking and then some footsteps.

For the first time in a long time, Rose didn't know what to expect.

The footsteps echoed closer and they stopped right in front of her cell.

Rose scoffed, tiredly at that

"Are you still pissed about our meeting, Killian?" Rose asked "Because I'm still not funding your research. It would be still a no"

Killian chuckled and slightly shook his head

"You've got the typical Stark snark"

Rose shrugged then slightly craned her neck "So, you know Mandarin or do you work for him?"

Killian raised a brow at her and smiled

"You are smarter than I give you credit for"

Rose kept her poker face

"Well, I'm the new genius on the throne" she replied, "but seriously what's your deal with Mandarin?"

"What can I say?" Killian paused then looked at her straight in the eye "I'm him"

"At least we cleared that out" Rose snorted and looked down but she still felt Killian's gaze on her. She looked at him

"what?" she asked then paused "Wait. Did you expect me to be impressed or something? You even deepened your voice, didn't you?" Rose tiredly chuckled "Not impressed"

Killian frowned, obviously taking offense

"Then soon I'll show you something to impress you"

"Yeah. Whatever" Rose waved him off "don't trouble me till then" and she looked away

"I can't help but find it surprising" Killian chuckled "Here you are, a captive of mine, and you still you think you can order me around"

"Maybe you should take pointers on how to impress people. Don't tell me you aren't impressed" Rose chuckled

"I'm" Killian admitted "I'm very impressed. Especially by this"

Rose frowned as Killian brought forward a tablet and played a video. She paled if that was possible. It was a video of her conjuring a barrier that took the missile head-on. It was taken from somewhere outside the house, probably from one of those helicopters.

Killian paused and glanced at it once "So how did you do it?"

"Me?" Rose scoffed. She really didn't want Killian to find out what all she could do. Nope.

"What even makes you think that I could do that?" Rose almost chuckled

"well, you were one of the _'Avengers'_ " he used his fingers to air-quote "who were in the Manhattan invasion"

"So?" Rose shrugged "Last I checked, five of the seven Avengers are humans"

"But you don't have any iron armor or super soldier experimentation done on you. We checked."

"First of all, the armor's gold-titanium alloy, dumbo. Second, the super-soldier experiment was banned right after World War II." Rose scoffed "update your facts, Killian"

"that's exactly why I asked. So, Ms. Stark. What are you?" he came closer to to the metal grates

Rose glared at him. A glare McGonagall should be so proud of.

"Smarter than you."

"You are something," he said as if he just found the world's greatest mystery. Rose scoffed, looked away, arms crossed, ignoring the pain and stretch of ligaments that were probably damaged

"and I'm going to find out what you are" he took a sharp intake "till then, enjoy your captivity"

And he walked out

Rose groaned but did nothing. She needed hell lot of rest before her magic was up to the mark. And something told her it wasn't an option here.

* * *

Tony grunted as he opened the door to a shed and entered. He made his armor rest on the available couch and made his way to the nearest table. It was filled with stuff. Tony looked around if he could find one that could help him repair the suit

"Freeze!"

Tony looked up as a young boy came out of the shadows holding a plastic gun

"Don't move."

"You got me." Tony raised his hands "Nice potato gun. The barrel's a little long. Between that and the wide gauge, it's gonna diminish your FPS."

The boy frowned at him and shot at a random tin can, which hit the mark

"And now you're out of ammo."

"What's that thing on your chest?" the boy asked

Tony looked at his reactor then at the boy

"It's an electromagnet. You should know, you got a box of them right here." Tony fiddled with a box of electromagnets

"What does it power?" the boy asked

Tony sighed. He slightly twisted and let the table lamp's light fall on his suit

The boy gasped in awe and his gun fell down with clatters

"Oh, my God."

The boy made his way to him

"That...That's...Is that Iron Man?"

"Technically, I am," Tony answered

"Technically, you're dead." The boy pressed a newspaper into his chest as he made his way to the suit. Tony frowned and caught the newspaper and unfolded it

MANDARIN ATTACK: STARKS PRESUMED DEAD

Below the headline was a photo of destroyed Malibu house and himself with Rose.

Anger and sadness flared inside him. Rose couldn't be dead. His daughter couldn't be dead. Nope.

Tears threatened his eyes. He had just lost one of his most precious possessions. There weren't many things he held close to heart, but those he held, they meant everything to him. Someone was going to pay. Mandarin was so going to pay.

Tony's grip on the newspaper tightened. And he refused to believe that Rose was dead. No. Rose was as much of a fighter as he was if not more. And he won't believe her to be dead unless he sees her dead-body with his own two eyes. Till then, Rose was alive and kicking.

"What happened to him?"

Tony looked up from the paper, quickly blinking his tears back. He threw the paper on the nearby table.

"Life." Tony shrugged "I built him. I take care of him. I'll fix him."

"Like a mechanic?"

"Yeah."

It ached to think that Rose was with him when he was building the suit. Now he had to repair it all alone.

"Hey, if I was building Iron Man and War Machine..." the boy's voice brought him back

"It's 'Iron Patriot' now" Tony offhandedly remarked

"That's way cooler!"

No, it wasn't. They both hated it.

"No, it's not."

"Anyways," the boy shrugged "I would have added in, um, the retro..."

"Retro-reflective panels?" Tony raised a brow

"To make him stealth mode." The boy nodded

"You want a stealth mode?"

"Cool, right?"

Rose would have liked it. She always preferred tiptoeing in dangerous situations rather than entering with all guns blazing. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Tony made a note of introducing this kid to Rose. 

"That's actually a good idea." Tony pondered "Maybe I'll build one." Or maybe he'll add it to Rose's suit. She'd like that for the New Year, provided she finishes her suit by then.

The boy started fiddling with the suit and then pulled out one of its fingers

"Not a good idea." Tony quickly piped

"Oops." the boy humorlessly said

"What are you doing? You're gonna break his finger?" Tony snapped "He's in pain. He's been injured. Leave him alone."

"Sorry." the boy meekly said

"Are you?" Tony asked and then inhaled sharply "Don't worry about it, I'll fix it."

Tony took another breath and glanced at the newspaper and then took a seat next to him

"So, uh, who's home?"

"Well, my mom already left for the diner and Dad went to 7-11 to get scratchers. I guess he won, because that was six years ago," he answered softly

"Hmm." Tony snorted "Which happens. Dads leave. No need to be a pussy about it."

The two sat in silence before Tony snapped up and looked at the boy

"Here's what I need." he looked at the boy "A laptop, a digital watch, a cell phone, the pneumatic actuator from your bazooka over there, a map of town, a big spring and a tuna fish sandwich."

"What's in it for me?" the boy asked

"Salvation." Tony answered and then looked at the boy "What's his name?"

"Who?"

"The kid that bullies you at school. What's his name?"

"How'd you know that?"

But Tony didn't reply.

"I got just the thing."

He reached and pulled something from his suit. It was Rose's idea to put it in the suit. "It would come in handy sometime later. You never know." she had told him.

He showed it to the boy

"This is a pinata for a cricket."

The boy gave him a look

"I'm kidding. This is a very powerful weapon. Point it away from your face, press the button on top, it discourages bullying. Non-lethal, just to cover one's ass. Deal? What do you say?"

"Deal." the boy answered after a couple of seconds

Tony nodded

"What's your name?"

"Harley. And you're..."

"The mechanic." Tony paused "Tony." he nodded once and then faced Harley "You know what keeps going through my head? Where's my sandwich?"

* * *

Pepper stood on the edge of the destroyed mansion, arms wrapped herself. She still couldn't get it over. Her family was just killed off in a blast. Tony risked his life to save hers. So did Rose. she couldn't control her tears. Amidst the firefighters, cops, and reporters, no one came to talk to her. Maya covered in mostly for her. She still couldn't believe that the man she loved and the girl she had always considered a daughter were dead. She just wished that the news hadn't traveled to the Wizarding World yet. The last thing she needed was a whole society of magicals on a manhunt for their 'Saviour' and the one who hurt her. That'd only complicate everything. Especially after Rose and Tony tried everything in their power to keep that part of their family a huge secret. 

She wiped her tears only for them to appear again.

"Pepper?"

Pepper froze. She knew that voice. She knew that voice very well. Steeling her face and shoulders, she turned around to come face to face with three people she least expected to see here. 

Natasha, Clint, and Steve

"What are you doing here?" Pepper asked

"We saw the news, mam" Steve started

"So now SHIELD wants in?" Pepper snorted "You guys woke up pretty soon. Should have waited until another place was bombed, no?"

Steve and Clint visibly winced. Natasha kept her poker face. 

"We are sorry, Ms. Potts" Clint added softly

Pepper narrowed her eyes

"Rose and Tony are not dead."

"No they are not" Clint agreed "They are tougher, I know. We know that"

"SHIELD doesn't want in. We do"

"We?"

"Yes, mam" Steve nodded "Rose and Tony were a part of Avengers. Our team. It becomes our responsibility to watch their backs. And if they are al-" Steve paused at the glare Pepper Potts sent towards him. Okay, it was as bad as Natasha's.

Steve cleared his throat and rephrased "And considering they are alive, we should find them."

Pepper didn't say anything

"Has any of those two sent any sort of message?" Natasha asked

Pepper bit her lip and shook her head "Nothing"

"Suit?"

"Tony was wearing one. Mark 42, I believe"

"It has a tracker, right?" 

Pepper nodded but then sighed "Not that it would matter. I looked around. JARVIS's servers here are blown. His main servers are in the tower, but no way can you track the suit from here"

"We can ask Bruce" Clint suggested. the other two nodded

"Whos's she? Never seen her around" Natasha looked at Maya Hansen

"Maya Hansen. An old acquaintance of Tony's."

"What's she doing here?" Steve asked, looking at the brunette. Maya seemed a little shifty. 

"I don't know. Never got the chance to ask her"

"I'll talk to her" Natasha walked over the rubble towards the woman, who sat alone.

"Ms. Potts?"

Steve and Pepper looked at Clint who appeared near them with an Iron Man helmet.

"It's Tony's" Pepper muttered

"It's beeping." Clint handed it to her. She noticed a small beeping noise and a blinking light coming from the helmet. she turned it and placed it on her head.

"Stark secure server." a female voice said, "Retinal scan verified."

And then she heard Tony's voice which made her gasp

_"I've got a lot of apologies to make and not a lot of time. So... First off, I'm so sorry I put you in harm's way. That was selfish and stupid and it won't happen again..."_

* * *

Rose took a deep breath. She felt better than she did an hour ago but it wasn't good. Her magic still wasn't up to the level which would allow her to send any kind of signal to Malibu. Where was she even?

"Sons of bitches" Rose muttered. They didn't provide her with water or any kind of food. and it only weakened her.

the clanking repeated and then the footsteps. She looked outside, waiting for Killian. But to her surprise, it was someone else

"Don't tell me that your boss is scared to even confront me"

the man didn't react and threw in a small cardboard box.

"Gee thanks" she sneered as the man left. She reached to pick the box and opened it. Inside was a sandwich, a banana, and a small water bottle

"How thoughtful" she scoffed, picking the sandwich. It wasn't bad. She had survived on worse.

Once finished, she screwed open the water bottle and finished it in a gulp. Rose decided to save the banana for later and was about to throw off the box when she noticed something. a small piece of paper was safely tucked in one corner under the banana. she took it out and unfolded it, keeping the box down.

The moment she read the headline, her eyes widened.

MANDARIN ATTACK: STARKS PRESUMED DEAD

What the bloody hell?

Rose inhaled sharply. Tony couldn't be dead. No, he wasn't. She had nearly lost him 8 months ago in Manhattan but now? again? No. She would never believe Tony to be dead even if Pepper of Jarvis told her so. Nope.

She was alive. and there was a major chance that he'd be too. Okay. So she needed to get out of here, finish this son of a bitch and find Tony and then Pepper.

the paper crumbled in her hand as anger flared inside her. and she realized her eyes glowed for a split second. that was a shocker. her magic had never recharged this quickly. But then Dumbledore had once told her that anger was a great motivator

* * *

Walking around the streets of Tennessee with Harley leading him to the explosion point

"...the spring was a little rusty, the rest of the materials, I'll make do. By the way, when you said your sister had a watch..." Tony looked at the kid's Dora the Explorer watch on his wrist "...l was kind of hoping for something a little more adult than that."

"It's a limited edition." Harley snorted "When can we talk about New York?"

"Relax about it."

"Can we talk about them? Or your daughter? she's badass, by the way," Harley asked as they approached the burial site. it was filled with candles and photos

"Hey, kid, give me a little space." Tony snapped as subtly as he could and then looked at the place "What's the official story here? What happened?"

"Chad Davis used to live roundabouts. He won a bunch of medals in the army. And one day, folks said he went crazy and made, you know, a bomb. Then he blew himself up, right here."

Tony walked around the site

"Six people died, right?"

"Yeah"

"Including Chad Davis."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Yeah. That doesn't make sense." Tony muttered

At Harley puzzled look, Tony explained

"Think about it. Six dead. Only five shadows."

"Yeah. People said these shadows are like the marks of souls going to heaven. Except the bomb guy. He went to hell, on account of he didn't get a shadow. That's why there's only five." Harley explained

"Do you buy that?" Tony looked at him

"It's what everyone says." Harley shrugged "You know what this crater reminds me of?"

"No idea. I'm not..." Tony inhaled sharply "I don't care."

"That giant Wormhole in, um, in New York. Does it remind you?"

"That's manipulative." Tony scoffed. But then again, he had seen Rose us the same technique of manipulation on others to fish out stuff. He was glad that he was never on the receiving end. While Harley was still amateur when it came to manipulation, Rose was a pro.

"I don't want to talk about it." Tony snapped

"Are they coming back? The aliens?"

"Maybe. Can you stop?" Tony frowned at Harley when he realized his breathing getting shallower and faster. He almost collapsed on the ground, Harley right next to him

"Remember what I told you, that I have an anxiety issue?" Tony huffed

"Does this subject make you edgy?"

"Yeah, a little bit. Can I just catch my breath for a second?"

"Are there bad guys in Rose Hill? Do you need a plastic bag to breathe into?"

Tony wheezed and glared at Harley

"Do you have medication?" Harley asked

"No."

"Do you need to be on it?"

"Probably."

"Do you have PTSD?"

"I don't think so."

"Are you going completely mental? I can stop. Do you want me to stop?"

"Remember when I said" Tony wheezed again "to stop doing that? I swear that you're gonna freak me out."

Tony wheezed harder and his breathing hardened. It took him proper ten minutes to calm down and once he did, he sighed loudly and then groaned. Now he really hoped that Rose was here. She had always had a calming effect on him.

"Ah, man, you did it, didn't you? You happy now?"

"What did I say?"

Tony just got up and started walking away

"Hey! Wait up!" Harley called, running after him

Tony panted, walking around

"What the hell was that?" Harley asked

"Your fault." Tony snapped "You spazzed me out. Okay, back to business. Where were we?" Tony sniffed "The guy who died. Relatives? Mom? Mrs. Davis, where is she?"

"Where she always is."

"See? Now, you're being helpful."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Killian, you are one ugly sonofabitch. Please keep your filthy murderer hands away from me and please stop trying to bed me"  
> -Rose Stark

1 hour before

Ever since Steve had heard the news of his friends' house getting exploded by terrorists, he hadn't left the HQ. Nat accompanied him as the two tried to reason with Fury and let them go on the field. 

But Fury was hard to convince.

Next thing they knew, Clint barged in into Fury's office. At first, he seemed a little surprised to see Steve and Nat but then his attention to his boss

"We need to find the Starks"

Fury parroted the same response. 

"But it doesn't have to be SHIELD interfering" Clint responded

"What do you mean, Barton?" 

"I mean we don't have to be there as SHIELD agents, but as Avengers. Avengers is a private organization funded entirely by Starks. Sure they work as consultants here but they are not on SHIELD's payroll."

Fury frowned, whether because his agents were so adamant on saving two billionaires or because his agents were thinking beyond they were paid for, the three couldn't tell. 

After about 2 minutes of constant staring, Fury gave them a curt nod

Without a word, the three of them packed their bags and everything required, borrowed a quinjet and took off

* * *

Current time

Heading for the town's bar, Tony paused when someone collided into him. Some girl

"Uh...Sorry." Tony said but something caught his eye, a fallen purse "Lady?" he called as he picked it up for her "Is this, uh..."

the woman returned and took the purse from him. and then Tony saw her complete face where one side of her face was marred in scars

"Thank you." she smiled

"Nice haircut. it suits you." Tony replied

"Nice watch," she smirked

"Yeah. A limited-edition." tony replied

"Oh, I don't doubt it." the woman chuckled "Well, have a good evening."

* * *

Rose sat on the platform, eyes closed head leaned back. she was somehow trying to get so angry to charge herself to the max. and she had half accomplished. It wasn't much but a little more and she could maybe apparate. the only problem- she could end up splinching herself so badly that her next 1-2 months might be in some hospital but technically anywhere was better than here.

no one had bothered to approach the whole day after the obvious food run in the morning. the hunger only made her headache and body weaker. and it was obviously what Killian was expecting of her. And if she didn't make a fool of Killian in front of his own men, she'd forbid being Rose Stark.

A sudden clang broke her concentration. She opened her eyes to see a couple of brute men enter

"What?" she asked, a sudden chill running down her spine

But the men just advanced on her, causing her to back up to the wall

"Listen, guys, I'm pretty there are other ways than we can handle this. No need to get physical, mates" she weakly chuckled "I'm su-"

but she suddenly yelped as one of them grabbed her blood-stained hair from behind and pulled

"Owwww! You nasty son of a bitch! Stop manhandling me!"

and to her horror, something sharp was pricked on her neck

"NO! Get it fucking aw-" she stopped when she realized the man pulling out the empty injection.

"What was it?" Rose asked, her heart starting to beat faster by every second "what the bloody hell did you inject me with?!"

"something to keep you tamed, sweet cheeks" one of them chuckled

"Has anyone ever told you that you look like a pansy?" Rose asked and suddenly she felt her ears ringing. her head got heavy and her legs uncomfortably jelly. Next thing she knew, she fell down on the ground and soon everything blackened

* * *

"So Tony's alive" Clint breathed

Pepper nodded, the helmet tucked under her arm

"Did he say anything about where he was?" Steve asked, crossing his arms

"No. He just said he wanted to finish the whole Mandarin business and make it up to me and Rose"

"Tony doesn't know Rose is missing too, does he?" Clint inhaled "Well, that just complicates everything"

"She's definitely hiding something" 

the three looked at Natasha approached them

"She's shifty and uncomfortable. She knows something that she's not sharing."

"Did she say what she was doing here?" Steve asked

"Never got a chance to ask" Pepper replied

"Well then let's make her talk" Clint muttered

"Not here, barton. We don't know who might be listening" Steve replied

"Well, you are lucky then. We have a safe house nearby" Clint shrugged

Steve nodded and so did Pepper. the four started heaving for their black SUV. Nat grabbed Maya and almost pushed inside the vehicle. Clint slipped behind the wheel, Pepper, into the passenger seat. Maya, Steve, and Nat behind them, with Maya between the two Avengers

"Are you kidnapping me?" Maya asked as Clint pulled from the driveway

"Depends" Clint replied

"On what?"

a click made her look next to her where Natasha had just put in a new magazine in her gun and pulled out the safety. Maya gulped

Natasha looked at her and tucked the gun in her jeans' waistband

"Depends on how much you are willing to cooperate, Dr. Hansen" 

* * *

Entering the bar, Tony made his way to the lady Harley had so gracefully described at Mrs. Davis

"Mind if I join you?" he asked

she stopped mid-drink and eyed him

"Free country."

"Sure is." Tony inhaled and sat down

"All right." she began "Where would you like to start?"

Tony took a deep breath "I just want to say, I'm sorry about your loss. I want to know what you think happened."

Mrs. Davis eyed him and then slid a file towards him

"Look, I brought your damn file. You take it, go. Whatever was in here, he wanted no part of it."

Tony opened Chad Davis' file and went through it

"Clearly, you're waiting for someone else. Huh? Supposed to meet someone here?"

"Yeah."

Tony noticed something written on the corner of one of the pages-MIA, then closed the file and looked at her

"Mrs Davis, your son didn't kill himself. I guarantee you, he didn't kill anyone. Someone used him."

"What?"

"As a weapon."

"You're not the person that called me after all, are you?" Mrs. Davis whispered

Before Tony could reply, something was slammed on their table. Tony barely had the time to see the same woman he had bumped into earlier in front of the bar before she twisted his arm and slammed his head on the table.

Tony hardly managed to pocket Chad's dog tags, which had fallen from the file, before the woman cuffed both his hands and threw him over

"What's all this about?" a man asked, standing up "What the hell is going on here?"

"It's called an arrest." she replied, "Sheriff, is it?"

"Yes, ma'am, it is. And you are?"

"Homeland Security." she showed him her badge "We good here?"

"No, we're not "good."" the sheriff replied, humorlessly chuckling "I need a little more information than that."

"That's above your pay grade, Sheriff."

Tony looked at Mrs. Davis and gestured her. she nodded back, sliding the file under the pool table before anyone could see it

"Well, why don't you get on the horn to Nashville and, uh, upgrade me?"

"All right. You know what? I was hoping to do this the smart way,"

Tony's eyes widened when he noticed her hand around the badge suddenly started glowing a fiery orange

"But, uh, the fun way is always good."

"Deputy, get this woman out of..." before Sheriff could finish, the woman pressed the hot badge into the Sheriff's cheek, pulled his gun and shot him.

Chaos ensured in the bar as people started running and screaming. And amidst that, Tony finally got a chance to escape. Running out, he looked at her

"Hey, hot wings, you want to party? Come on, you and me, let's go."

he started running but stopped at the sight of another man, exiting his car, similar glowing orange lines flashing on his face

Tony barely had time to dive off behind a car before the man took off his gun and started shooting him

Tony sighed and looked around, spotting another man hidden behind the same car

"Crazy, huh?" he asked

"Yep."

"Watch this." with that, Tony headed for the nearest store and slammed his body on the glass, breaking it as he threw himself inside. He groaned and tried standing up and looked behind only to see that woman holding a shotgun in his direction

"Crap!"

* * *

The voices were faint. the visuals blurry.

Rose groaned as she tried to open her eyes, clear the mess. her headache had slightly lessened and it made her feel a little better. By the time her eyes completely opened, she looked around to realize she was now in some kind of warehouse.

Groaning again, she tried raising her hand only to find them tied. What? she looked down at herself and her eyes widened. Not only had they strapped her into some tilted stretcher and had bound both her arms and legs, but they had also stripped her to the bare minimum of her bra and her boyshorts.

what the hell?

"Sleeping beauty is awake, I see"

Rose craned her neck to see Killian approaching her, followed by two of his men

"Had a good sleep"

"My yelp review is going to be one star" she replied

he just chuckled and slightly shook his head

"so what is all this shit, Killian? What were you thinking about stripping me down like this?" she snapped

"I was thinking how someone so beautiful and perfect like you could be Tony Stark's offspring"

Rose blinked once "Look, usually, I'd be down to this and it'd be my turn on, but you are not my type, not to mention my dad's age. So no"

Killian laughed, a creepy laugh

"You really are like him. But you see, I got you here for something else. To show you what EXTREMIS really is"

"I do not care. I will never fund it"

"That's, that's where you fall back. You, Starks, are really short-sighted. You just don't want to see what nature is there to offer us, do you, Rose. I...can I call you Rose?"

"If I say no, will you stop?"

"Not really"

"Whatever" Rose scoffed

"You see Rose, humans are meant to evolve. and I'm just providing them a way to evolve into better and more powerful beings"

"By recoding genetics?" Rose deadpanned

"Yes! by doing so we can create perfect humans. they'll have unmatched strength, unparalleled intelligence, and perfection. Now, what's wrong with that?"

"What's wrong is that you are talking about changing the general default coding of DNA. You have no idea the number of ways it can go wrong. You might end up creating a monster so much more powerful than the Hulk that even you might not be able to control it. What wrong is that you are talking about genocide and mass destruction." she took a deep breath "Tell me Killian, how many people died because of this obsession of yours?"

Killian shrugged "Collateral damage"

"Colla-for the love of God" she muttered, irritated "what the bloody hell is wrong with you?"

Killian just shook his head, but that creepy smile never left his face

"I'm just helping people to become what they want. To get over their illness, their imperfections"

Rose narrowed her eyes at him. She vaguely remembered Pepper telling her that Killian used to limp and had a bad back.

"It is inside you, isn't it?" she asked

"And it changed my life!" Killian chuckled

"It has corrupted you. it's taking over your thinking, your common sense. Killian, don't do this."

"It's not corrupting me, Rose. it just gave me clarity, a broader horizon"

"You are a monster" Rose muttered, her face hard

Killian chuckled again and slightly shook his head

"so, Rose, let me ask again, what are you?"

Rose glared at him "Woman, a Stark, Billionaire, CEO of Stark Industries, Player, Philanthropist, Scientist, An Avenger. Take your pick"

Killian chuckled again "You just cannot answer a question with a simple answer, can you?"

"You can be stupidly persistent, can't you?" she snapped "Why the hell do you even care?"

Killian smiled at her "I just wanted to if I should expect any side effects when I put EXTREMIS inside you"

* * *

"Are you going to murder me?" Maya asked

But none of them answered

"What were you doing here?" Natasha asked

Maya swallowed softly as she looked around the car. Clint was entirely focused on the road. Pepper was going through her phone. Steve was looking outside as well. But she knew all of them had their attention on their interrogation as well

"I came to talk to Tony"

"Why? What was so important?"

Maya shifted a little and looked around again

"Just answer her, Dr. Hansen" Steve said, sparing her a look

Maya sighed "I think my boss is working for Mandarin"

Clint's eyes narrowed at her via the rearview mirror "You think?!"

Maya nodded

Pepper turned to look at her "Tony said you are a botanist"

Maya couldn't help but roll her eyes "That figures. What I actually am is a biological DNA coder running a team of forty out of a privately-funded think tank, but sure you can call me a botanist."

"This boss of yours," Steve started "he got a name?"

Maya nodded again "Aldrich Killian"

Pepper quite audibly gasped

"You know him?" Clint asked

"He had an appointment with Rose yesterday, hoping for collaboration and funding from our company"

"But she rejected him" Maya replied

Pepper frowned "I stand by what she said. Re-coding a person's DNA is wrong on many levels and we don't need another Hulk."

"Re-coding DNA?" Natasha muttered before she looked at Maya "what the hell were you working on?"

"I call it EXTREMIS"

* * *

After blasting off the woman and taking care of the man with Harley's help, Tony walked to the man's car. he looked over his shoulder to see Harley following him

"For what? Did I miss something?" Tony asked, opening the trunk to check it

"Me, saving your life," Harley replied

"Yeah. A, I saved you first. B, thanks. Sort of. And C, if you do someone a solid, don't be a yutz. All right? Just play it cool. Otherwise, you come off grandiose. "

"Unlike you?" Harley asked, making Tony stop and look at him "Admit it, you need me. We're connected."

"What I need is for you to go home," Tony closed the trunk and face Harley "be with your mom, keep your trap shut, guard the suit, and stay connected to the telephone because if I call, you better pick up. Okay? Can you feel that? We're done here."

Tony opened the door and got in "Move out of the way, or I'm gonna run you over. Bye, kid."

Seeing that Harley didn't move, Tony sighed

"I'm sorry, kid. You did good."

"So, now you're just gonna leave me here, like my dad?"

"Yeah." Tony sighed and then his head snapped realizing what Harley had said, "Wait, you're guilt-tripping me, aren't you?"

It was the same technique Rose had used on him or Pepper or Rhodey when she was a kid. And thankfully he was now immune to it

"I'm cold." Harley childishly said, snuggling deeper into his coat

"I can tell." Tony replied in a mocking child voice "You know how I can tell? Because we're connected."

with that, he started the car and drove off

* * *

"Start talking" Natasha all but growled.

"It was an idea I came up with a long time ago. In my second year at MIT, actually. It's basically a program of re-coding a living being's DNA to make them better and more sophisticated. Enhancing them and helping them recover from their physical disabilities"

"There was no way that could have gone wrong, was it?" Clint snorted

Maya narrowed her eyes at him but continued "But I ran out of funds and I needed them to continue my research."

"So you sold it to Killian?" Steve asked

Maya bit her lip "Once he got hooked on the idea, he started developing it on his own. We worked on it together but there wasn't that much progress. But we couldn't make it public. The President has a ban on biotech research. He considers them immoral, until, of course, it is backed by a reputed company or institute"

"That's why you wanted to work with us!" Pepper said. Despite pulling out of the weapons business, Stark Industries still made a lot of stuff for the government. 

"But your CEO princess rejected him," Maya vaguely noticed the lonely highway they were taking her through

Pepper inhaled sharply and sat straighter, going back to her phone

"How are Starks involved?" Natasha asked

"I met Tony back in '99 in Bern. I was just developing the idea back then but I couldn't get it to stabilize. Tony helped me with that"

"that's it?" Clint raised a brow

"they slept together" Pepper deadpanned

Internally Steve winced and applauded Pepper's ability to tolerate Tony and his past escapades

"It was one night only" Maya argued

"If Tony helped you in '99 to stabilize that, then what were you doing here?" Natasha asked

"I needed his help. What he helped me with, back in the day, should have stabilized it, in theory, mind you, but not in practicality. it wasn't stable enough"

"Stable enough for what?" Clint asked

Maya gulped again

"Stable enough for human trials"

Clint inhaled sharply before he pulled t the only gas station on that stretch. They had been driving for the past hour and a half and Pepper had him if he could pull someplace

"5 minutes" he declared

The girls got out of the car, heading straight to the washroom. 

Clint and Steve too got out and took the gas pipe before inserting it into the SUV's tank

"I have a feeling where Rose might be" He muttered 

"So did I. But it's not her location that worries me. It's how she is being treated. Seriously, we can't expect excellent hospitality from this Killian fella." Steve replied

Clint nodded "Call Bruce?"

Steve nodded and pulled his phone

* * *

On his way out of Tennessee, he called Rhodey, who thankfully picked up

_"Hello?"_

"You ever have a chick straddling you and you look up and suddenly she's glowing from the inside out, kind of a bright orange?" Tony asked

_"Yeah, I've had that. Who is this?"_

"Now, last time I went missing, if I remember correctly, you came looking for me. What are you doing?"

_"A little knock-and-talk, making friends in Pakistan. What are you doing?"_

"Your redesign, your big rebrand, that was AIM, right?" Tony asked

_"Yeah."_

"I'm gonna find a heavy-duty comm sat right now, I need your login."

_"It's the same as it's always been, "WarMachine68.""_

"And password, please."

_"Well, look, I gotta change it every time you hack in, Tony."_

Tony rolled his eyes " It's not the '80s, nobody says "hack" anymore. Give me your login."

He heard Rhodey sigh _""WAR MACHINE ROX" with an "X," all caps."_

Tony chuckled

he heard a whirring and then a small blast

Tony took a deep breath before asking

"any news on Rosie?"

_"She's not with you?"_

"No" Tony grunted "No she's not"

_"Jesus! Rose is missing too?!"_

* * *

Rose hated it. it felt like her body was burning on the inside. it was burning on the inside. and it damn near felt like Cruciatus Curse.

They had attached a drip on her inner elbow which supplied EXTREMIS inside her. it had been 30 minutes since it had happened and Killian had left her there with just one other doctor-scientist, whosoever he was.

she could see faint orange-red glowing lines appear and disappear within her veins and occasional glow radiating off her body

what made it more uncomfortable was that she could feel her magic questioning the presence of a foreign substance in her body. Rose never thought she'd think like this, but she really hoped that her magic would accept the EXTREMIS and wouldn't reject it. She had no idea what would happen if her magic and body did reject EXTREMIS. That would be a very sad-isfying way to die at adorable the age of 22

* * *

Just as Steve hung up, the girls returned. Clint exited the shop after paying and they all got in the vehicle, their previous places

"Okay, Hansen, enough chit chat" Clint started "where's Killian's base?"

Maya sputtered "I don't know"

Natasha cleared her throat 

"I'm not lying, I swear to god. I don't know a thing. Once Killian started developing my EXTREMIS, he started keeping me out of the loop. withheld stuff. And then I saw what happened on the news and realized that Killian might be working with the Mandarin"

"Okay, but Killian is working on a genetic serum. Mandarin is doing bomb blasts. How are they connected?" Natasha asked

Maya looked around others clearly uncomfortable

"EXTREMIS is highly exothermic. If it is taken in more than required amount, the person-"

"explodes, don't they?" Pepper asked 

Maya took a deep breath "I told Killian that we needed to make the serum stabler but he was sure that we could do human trials. He was wrong"

"So they aren't bomb-blasts? they are your testers" Steve realized

Maya nodded "misfires" she exhaled "I swear I don't know where Killian is or where the Starks are."

That settled the interrogation. Each of their minds racing with their own thoughts.

* * *

Tony found what he wanted in a broadcasting van. he had broken in and started using the computer

"That ain't gonna cut it," he muttered

his concentration was broken when he heard someone say

"Excuse me, sir. I don't know who..."

Realizing he was caught, Tony looked at the man and shushed him. When the man realized who had broken in, his eyes widened

"Mom, I need to call you back." he said into his phone "Something magical is happening."

he hung up and looked at him in awe and surprise

"Tony Stark is in my van." he almost squealed

"Shh. Keep it down." Tony whispered

"Tony Stark is in my van!" he repeated

"No, he's not," Tony said

"I knew you were still alive!" he squealed

Tony sighed and lowered his voice

"Come on in. Close the door."

the cameraman followed and entering closed the door behind him

"Oh, wow." he exclaimed breathlessly "Can I just say, sir..."

"Yep," Tony muttered

"I am your biggest fan," he said

Tony sighed and looked at the man

"Okay. First, is this your van? Is anyone else gonna come in?"

"No no, no. Just us."

"Great. What's your name?"

"Gary" the man answered

"Gary" Tony nodded

"Oh, wow."

Tony got up and placed Gary at a little distance,

"Right there is fine."

"Okay." Gary smiled

"Okay?" Tony chuckled "I get a lot of this, it's okay."

"Oh, good. Can I just say?"

"What do you want? Yeah." tony asked

Gary beamed "I don't know if you can tell, but I have, like, patterned my whole look after you."

Tony noticed "My hair's a little..."

"It's fine."

"It's not right, 'cause there's no product in it."

"Right." Gary agreed

Tony took a deep breath and so did Gary

"I don't want to make things awkward" Gary started "for you, but I do have to show you...Boom!" he pulled up his sleeve which had a man's face tattoo

"A Hispanic Scott Baio?" Tony asked, gaping at the tattoo "I'm sorry. Is that me?"

"Yeah. It's... I mean...I had them do it off a doll that I made, so it's not like it's off a picture. So it's a little bit...But you what? I liked your daughter too. and I wanted to have her on my arm as well but then I didn't want to appear like a stalker or somet-"

"Gary. Listen to me, okay?" Tony interrupted and rested his hands on Gary's shoulders "I don't want to clip your wings, here. We're both a little over-excited. I got an issue. I'm chasing bad guys. I'm trying to grab a little something from some hard-crypt data files. I don't have enough juice. I need you to jump on the roof..."

"Right?"

"Recalibrate the lSDNs. Pump it up by about 40%."

"Got it."

"All right? It's a mission."

"Yeah." Gary beamed

"Tony needs Gary. And Gary needs Tony. Be quiet about it. Go."

"Yeah."

* * *

She felt sick. unbearably sick. her body temperature was rising. Sweat trickled off of her so much that even her hair had gotten wet.

suddenly she felt weird. Her gut was feeling weird. Her throat had a sour-bitter taste and the next thing she knew, she threw up. She let her head roll back in tiredness and pain

"What is this?" she heard the man/doctor/scientist muttered

rose tiredly opened her eyes and looked at her vomit and her eyes widened as much as she could with all the tiredness

She had heaved out glowy orange-y stuff which looked like molten lava along with blood

* * *

Honestly, no one was in the mood to talk. But apparently Maya felt otherwise

"Fun fact." she humorlessly chuckled "Before he built rockets for the Nazis, the idealistic Wernher von Braun dreamed of space travel. He stargazed. Do you know what he said when the first V-2 hit London? "The rocket performed perfectly. It just landed on the wrong planet." See, we all begin wide-eyed. Pure science. And then the ego steps in the obsession. And you look up, you're a long way from shore." she shook her head

No one replied. 

And then Pepper sighed and turned to look back at the brunette

"You can't be too hard on yourself, Maya. I mean, you gave your research to a think tank."

"You should know who you are going to work with before you sell something as weaponizable as EXTREMIS to someone," Steve said

"I didn't know how bad it could have turned out" Maya argued back "That was my chance to expand my research, make it better. Never thought Killian would built that think tank on military contracts."

"That's exactly what we used to do. So, don't judge yourself." Pepper said

Maya weakly smiled "Thank you, Pepper. I really appreciate that."

Pepper gave her a small nod and straightened

"How are we looking?" Nat asked

"15 more mi-"

It happened so suddenly that they hadn't realized. One moment they were driving and the next something huge and heavy crashed into their SUV, dragging it all the way ahead of them. And then it stopped. 

Steve groaned as he tried to check his body. Nothing seemed broken. He slightly opened his eyes, ignoring the concussion to find that his body was horribly trapped under the crushed SUV. His breath hitched when he noticed the crushed roof glowing bright yellow before it was torn off by two burly men. Steve tried to stand up but couldn't with the way his body was entangled with the crushed car. 

One man picked up the Maya while the other picked Pepper, both of them knocked unconscious. 

By the time, Steve managed to get himself out, the semi was driven off. Swearing to himself, he rushed back to the car and pulled out his two teammates. Clint was barely awake while Nat had a nasty head wound but look conscious. 

"Nat? Clint?" he called

"Don't yell, man. It's already too loud" Clint complained, rubbing his forehead

"Steve?" Nat asked, holding his arm

"they took Pepper and Hansen"

* * *

Rose sighed. she couldn't handle it. The guy had stopped her EXTREMIS flow in after she had heaved the major amount of what they had put in her. Her throat was unbearably dry and her lips were chapped

"Why have you stopped?"

Killian had re-entered and was looking at the doctors around her vomit. what was even so curious about it?

"She just threw up all the amount of EXTREMIS we injected in her. Her body's not accepting it but at the same time she didn't blow up like others"

Blow up? the ones who didn't survive it they blew up?

Rose groaned as realization sunk in. the bombs weren't bombs. they were EXTREMIS guinea pigs gone wrong.

"accidental fires" Rose muttered to herself

"what did you say, honey?" Killian asked, stepping closer to her

Rose took a staggering breath "Scr-screw you"

Killian blinked at her

"Well look at that. You are here, almost dead but still sassy" he chuckled, raising his hand and running it across her cheek "I so wish you were my age. But I could still have some use of you, love"

Rose grunted and snapped her face away

"What are you, Rosie?"

"Don't call me that" she hissed

"Name reserved for daddy dearest?" Killian chuckled "Rose, just tell me what you are. You help me and I'll help you"

Rose looked at him with a glare

"I mean it. If you tell me what you are, you'll give me a chance to improve EXTREMIS and you'll get the honor to be the first recipient of such a powerful serum"

Rose took a deep breath and frowned

"Go to hell"

Before Killian could reply, his phone rang. he checked it and then beamed

"Guess what?" he looked up at her "I found something to motivate you. Rather someone"


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Why do Starks attract all the trouble?"  
> "Banner right"  
> -Bruce Banner and Hulk

Tony grunted. whatever he had expected, he found out worse. Killian developed EXTREMIS, got handicapped people on it and knowing it wouldn't work out legally, then sold it to Mandarin. That would also explain his meeting with Rose. That was cheap. And a dreading feel in gut told him that it was just the tip of the iceberg.

Right now the only thing in his mind was to find Mandarin, finish him and then look for Rose, whatever may be the order

Driving on a highway, he spared a glance at his phone when it connected

"Give me a full report," he asked

 _"Yeah, I'm still eating that candy."_ Harley replied, _"Do you want me to keep eating it?"_

"How much have you had?"

_"Two or three bowls."_

"Can you still see straight?"

_"Sort of."_

"That means you're fine. Give me Jarvis." Tony waited for a second "JARVIS, how are we?"

 _"I seem to do quite well for a stretch, and then at the end of the sentence I say the wrong cranberry."_ JARVIS replied _"And, sir, you were right. Once I factored in available AIM downlink facilities I was able to pinpoint the Mandarin's broadcast signal."_

"What are we talking? Far East, Europe, North Africa, Iran, Pakistan, Syria? Where is it?"

_"Actually, sir, it's in Miami."_

Tony frowned. Miami? Mandarin was hidden in Miami? That wasn't likely. He tsked and shifted the gear in the car

"Okay, kid, I'm gonna have to walk you through rebooting JARVIS' speech drive, but not right now." Tony grunted once again "Harley, where is he really? Just look on the screen and tell me where it is."

_"Um, it does say Miami, Florida."_

Tony groaned. Miami was it, then

"Okay, first things first, I need the armor. Where are we at with it?"

_"Uh, it's not charging."_

The tires screeched as Tony forcefully applied the brakes, pulling at the side of the road. His breaths started becoming shorter and shallower

_"...but the power source is questionable. It may not succeed in revitalizing the Mark 42."_

"What's questionable about electricity?" Tony asked, breath hitching "All right?"

Tony paused for a second, wheezing and slightly coughing "It's my suit, and I can't... I'm not gonna...I don't wanna...Oh, God, not again."

Tony quickly got out and collapsed outside, leaning on the car

He heard Harley gasp

_"Are you having another attack? I didn't even mention New York."_

"Right," Tony wheezed "and then you just said it by name while denying having said it. Okay, um, uh..."

his breath started normalizing and reduced to panting only

"God, what am I gonna do?" he asked and leaning back, closed his eyes as he ran his hand through his hair

"Just breathe. Really, just breathe," he muttered to himself

 _"You're a mechanic, right?"_ Harley asked

"Right."

_"You said so."_

"Yes, I did."

_"Why don't you just build something?"_

Why didn't he think of that? 

'Cause he was having a panic attack. But Harley was right. His job was to build stuff. Suit or no suit, he was Iron Man.

"Okay. Thanks, kid."

* * *

Rose sighed. her mouth was as dry as the Sahara desert. She could even feel the cracks on her lips. they still hadn't resumed her EXTREMIS intake that was because they were modifying it specifically for her. After Killian had left about an hour ago, they had taken her blood and had been figuring out why her body was not only rejecting the serum but at the same time, remained in one piece.

And seeing her dropping vitals, they had put her on glucose IV but she knew it was just temporary.

Rose knew somewhere that the magic in her blood was the reason the two were mixing like oil and water and she wasn't planning on telling that to them. and even if she did, it'd take them decades to finally crack the code of her magic and mix it with EXTREMIS. But she knew one thing, her blood in the hands of these morons could very dangerous.

opening of the big metal doors of the warehouse, made her look there.

"W-What?" she demanded to see the person Killian was carrying in. It was Pepper. and unconscious Pepper.

Once Killian and his men placed her on a similar stretcher, stripped her off to her bra and leggings only, Killian looked at her with a huge smirk

"So, are you ready to tell what you are now?"

* * *

"Now what?" Clint asked

"I'll contact SHIELD" Natasha pulled her phone and excused herself. Just then Steve looked down as his phone rang. He answered the call, putting it on speaker

"Yeah Banner?" he asked

_"JARVIS is currently at Rose Hill, Tenessee. And that's where Tony's suit is"_

"But not Tony?" Clint asked

_"No. Tony's heading to Miami"_

"Why?" Steve asked

_"The line cut off before JARVIS could answer. Where ever in Rose Hill the suit is, it's got signal transmission issues for sure. But honestly, I cannot think of more than two reasons why Tony would head for Miami right now"_

"Either Mandarin is there or Rose is" Clint muttered

"Or both" Steve exhaled

_"Got nothing on Rose yet?"_

"No," Steve asked "and we got attacked by Mandarin's men. They took Pepper and Hansen"

 _"Jesus"_ Bruce inhaled sharply _"Are you guys alright?"_

"Nothing severe. Just a few bruises" Steve replied

 _"Anyway, I can help?"_ Bruce asked

"Just try to get in contact with JARVIS and the suit and see if you can get in with Tony" Clint answered, checking his weapons

 _"Got it."_ Bruce replied _"And guys, be safe"_

"Don't worry about us Banner" Clint replied "We got it"

Bruce hung up

"Miami" Steve exhaled

"You know, I've always wanted to got here, but seriously, there could have been better circumstances than this" Clint exhaled just as Nat returned "So?"

"They are sending our quinjet here," she replied, pocketing her phone, whose screen was now scratched "SHIELD had been keeping an eye on both the Starks. Tony was been spotted in Rose Hill, Tennessee. And there were a series of explosions, destruction of town water overhead tank and a lot of gunshots"

"Typical Stark" Clint snorted

"And in a hardware store about 100 miles from Rose Hill on I-22, which leads to Miami"

"Anything on Rose?" Steve heard himself ask

"Nothing."

"so more odds that Killian has Rose" Clint stated

"And War Machine has been offline for a while" she added

"What's War Machine?" Steve frowned but got ignored

"What was its last location?" Clint asked. "And why the hell do we even have tabs on War Machine?"

"We aren't supposed to, and it's Iron patriot, now. But, when it's own creator's daughter, came to SHIELD with its information and how to monitor it in case of dire circumstances, Fury couldn't and hadn't rejected that"

"Do you think Daddy Stark knows?" Clint asked

Nat shrugged

"Bonus, Killian's last location was the same. Miami"

"And why were they keeping tabs on Killian?" Steve asked

"Apparently SHIELD knew all about Killian's mad experiments on EXTREMIS. They had been the one to reject him on the grounds of immoral biological experiments."

"Since Banner, SHIELD had kept an eye for anything remotely resembling Super-Soldier serum in any way possible," Clint added

Just then the three of them heard a rumbling sound and looked up, to see the quinjet landing on the asphalt road. the three quickly made their way to the jet and took their positions

"Coordinates logged for Killian's last location" Clint announced before he took the jet off

* * *

Tony had done a lot of stupid things but this would definitely take the cake. If Rose didn't kill him first for it. Or Pepper, for that matter. Last night, he got into a hardware store, brought stuff, then he rented a room at a motel, built the required things and then took off the mission at the break of dawn

He had broken into the location JARVIS and Harley had so gracefully provided him. After knocking down a bunch of guards and getting a comparatively easy entry, Tony was thankful for the lessons he got from Happy and Rose. He finally found the room that was shown on the TV as the Mandarin base. There were props, a huge bed which was covered in a comforter over human-shapes.

Tony carefully approached the bed, gun aiming for anything and in a swift move, he pulled off the comforter and jumped back when he saw two sleepwear clad girls in bed.

Seeing him, the girls gasped and huddled together, only for Tony to shush them. Then he heard the toilet flush. He quickly rushed to hide behind the headboard as the girls went back to bed as if nothing happened. A man, the Mandarin, came out chuckling to himself

"I wouldn't go in there for 20 minutes." he laughed, his accent missing for some reason "Now, which one of you is Vanessa?"

"That's me." one of the girls said

"Ah! Nessie." he chuckled and threw something at her which she caught "Did you know that fortune cookies aren't even Chinese?"

"There's some guy over here." the other girl muttered sleepily but the Mandarin ignored her

"They're made by Americans, based on a Japanese recipe."

Tony rolled his eyes, came out, gun aiming at him

"Hey!" he yelled

"Bloody hell. Bloody hell." the man muttered, hands up in surrender

"Don't move," Tony ordered

"I'm not moving." Mandarin admitted and looked around "You want something? Take it. Although the guns are all fake because those wankers wouldn't trust me with the real ones."

"What?"

"Hey, do you fancy either of the birds?"

Realization set in "You're not him." he grunted taking a step forward as he cocked his gun "The Mandarin, the real guy. Where? Where's the Mandarin? Where is he?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." the man muttered, falling on the recliner "He's here. He's here, but he's not here. He's here, but he's not here."

"What do you mean?"

"It's complicated. Hey, it's complicated. It is."

"Uncomplicate it."

When he noticed that he wasn't going to speak, Tony looked over his shoulder "Ladies, out. Get out of the bed. Get into the bathroom."

Once the women left, Tony went and locked the door after them. He turned to face the guy back only to see him crawling away. Rolling his eyes, Tony shot a few centimeters away from his face, which made the man crawl back onto the recliner and relaxed a bit

"My name is Trevor. Trevor Slattery."

"What are you, a decoy? You're double, right?" Tony asked

"What, you mean like an understudy?" Trevor asked, "No, absolutely not."

Tony grunted and raised his gun aiming for his face

"Don't hurt the face!" Trevor exclaimed, "I'm an actor."

"You got a minute to live. Fill it with words."

"It's just a role. _"The Mandarin"_. See, it's not real."

"Then how did you get here, Trevor?" Tony asked as Trevor scooted and casually sat on the recliner. 

"Well, I, um, had a little problem with, um, substances. And I ended up doing things, no two ways about it, in the street, that a man shouldn't do."

"Next?"

"Then, they approached me about the role, and they knew about the drugs."

"What did they say? They'd get you off them?"

"They said they'd give me more. They gave me things. They gave me this palace." Trevor waved around "They gave me plastic surgery. They gave me things." and with that, his head rolled back and he dozed off

"Did you just nod off? Hey." Tony kicked him as he jolted wake

"No, and a lovely speedboat." Trevor added then paused "And the thing was, he needed someone to take credit for some accidental explosions...Boom!"

""He"?" Tony frowned "Killian?"

"Killian" Trevor confirmed

"He created you?"

"He created me."

"Custom-made terror threat."

"Yes. Yes. His think tank thinked it up." Trevor got up and walked to the table as Tony sat on the recliner "The pathology of a serial killer. The manipulation of Western iconography." he turned with two beer cans and spoke without his British accent "Ready for another lesson? Blah, blah, blah." he extended the can to Tony

"No."

"Of course," he said, back in his regular voice "it was my performance that brought the Mandarin to life."

"Your performance? Where people died?" Tony asked

"No, they didn't. Look around you. The costumes, green screen. Honestly, I wasn't on location for half this stuff. And when I was, it was movie magic, love."

Tony furrowed his brows and got up, gun aiming at Trevor

"I'm sorry, but my daughter is probably dead and I've got a best friend who's in a coma and he might not wake up. So you're gonna have to answer for that. You're still going down, pal. You under..."

Tony stopped when he saw Trevor look behind him. Tony quickly turned around to catch sight of the bald guy from Tennessee. Tony tried to attack, but he punched him across the face, knocking him out

* * *

Rose hated it. She kept on looking at Pepper who wasn't showing any signs of waking up

"Okay, let's make a deal" Killian chuckled, "You tell what you are and I'll let Pepper go. If you choose not to, I'll make you both one of my own"

Rose glared at Killian. she knew he was lying. and she also knew that no matter what she says, he will not let go of Pepper and will inject her with EXTREMIS. she could barely do a basic spell with the amount of magic in her, which had steadily decreased after she heaved all the EXTREMIS and blood.

The best she could do at the moment was to stall. Stall as long as possible and keep Pepper away from it

"I give you my word" Killian added

Lie. Terrible Lie

Rose grunted and took a deep breath "Fine. Can I have some water first?"

Killin didn't even blink, his face remaining completely blank

Rose rolled her eyes "You want to know what I'm? Well, I'm a witch"

Killian shot her a brief deadpanned look and then chuckled "You seriously think that this is the right time for jokes?"

Rose frowned "What's wrong with you? You wanted to know what I'm. and now I'm telling you"

"A witch?" Killian raised his brow "Aren't witches supposed to be old, warty, slightly green and incredibly ugly, not to mention fictional?"

"You mean like aliens and Norse gods?"

Killian fixed her another look "You are right" he nodded once "so, Rosie, tell me all there's to know about being a witch?"

Rose frowned but didn't answer

"Ok, no problem. How did you make that shield thing-y and took a missile head-on?"

"That's a protective barrier of pure energy"

"Amazing. And did you just, like think it up and it appeared?"

"Yes"

"So is it the energy you can manipulate or is it magic?"

"Isn't that one and the same thing?" Rose asked

"If you say so" Killian nodded "and is this magic the one protecting you from going all kaboom!"

"Yes," she replied. No matter what, she was willing to give anything more than the vaguest answers and apparently Killian was stupid enough not to ask her the right questions

"So, how did you get it? accident? experiment? alien radiation?"

"I was born with it" she replied "and for the love of God, can you get me something to drink? I can't talk with a dry mouth"

But Killian ignored her request

"Born with it" he repeated "so, Tony also has the same or was it from your mother? No no no" he chuckled "Tony can't have it. What he has is too big of an ego."

"My mother had it"

Killian nodded "So you are the last of your kind?"

Rose badly wanted to roll her eyes. She'd be damned if she told him about the Wizarding World. Not only would it attract some unwanted attention, but the whole magical world would also hunt her alive for outing them to a muggle. A deranged psychotic muggle at that.

"Yes. why? you expecting a while secret society or something?"

"More to experiment on" Killian shrugged

"You are sick" Rose frowned

Killian didn't respond

"Sir" the doctor approached Killian

"Are they mixing?"

"No" the doctor replied "and the fascinating thing is sir, that not only her blood and the EXTREMIS not mixing, but her blood is also somehow, umm, neutralizing the serum"

Killian looked at her with narrowed eyes while Rose gaped at the doctor

Her blood was doing what?

"It is magic, isn't it?" Killian asked

When Rose didn't reply, still trying to get over her shock, Killian took out his gun and shot just next to Rose's head, which grabbed her attention. Rose realizing what happened, frowned at Killian

"Are you crazy?" she demanded "you could have shot me, idiot. I could have died!"

"I asked a question" he frowned "Your magic is doing this, isn't it?"

"How would I know?" she asked, "this is my first time of being a Guinea pig."

18 years since she realized she had magic. and it still didn't stop amazing her. 

"Is there a way to make her blood mix with the serum?" Killian asked

"We're working on that, sir. But her blood is very strong, potent, very...dominating."

Killian paused as if thinking

"Can we make another serum with her blood as one of the core elements?"

Rose's eyes widened. What?!

"No. No, you can't do that" Rose frowned

The doctor thought for a moment "That should be plausible. and with her blood as a core element, her body should accept it as well"

"then get to it" Killian quickly replied, checking his watch. he turned and started walking out "and get the redhead on EXTREMIS"

"You promised!" Rose yelled

"I lied"

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Oh, the ways I will kill Killian. First, there'd be torture, lots of it and then I'd kill him. all of 'em."  
> -a furious Tony Stark

Rose grunted against her bindings. Her breath labored and unsteady. Tiredly she looked at Pepper, who had been flashing in and out of consciousness for a while now.

"Pepper" Rose called, causing the redhead to grunt and groan tiredly

"Pep" Rose tried again but nothing

She glanced back at the doctor as he tried to remake the EXTREMIS with her blood. He had already thrown out three vials and every time he ran out, he took a huge amount her blood again. And she hated it more than anything

Rose again tried to break her bindings but in vain. Her hunger, headache and previous encounter with EXTREMIS were making her weaker than ever. 

"Rosie?"

the voice was so soft that if it hadn't been so quiet in the warehouse they were kept in, Rose was sure she wouldn't have heard that. Her head quickly whipped to Pepper who was tiredly looking at her and managed to crack a small smile

"Pep" Rose breathed "It's going to be fine. I'm going to get us out of here. I swear"

Pepper grunted and groaned again and then slightly relaxed

"Ton-tony" she breathed out "He's al-alive"

* * *

Tony, when he woke up, found himself tied to an old metal bed frame in some warehouse. He grunted, trying to free himself when he finally noticed Maya standing at a distance. A little blood trickling from her forehead

"Okay-" he sighed

"It's just like old times, huh?" Maya asked

"Oh, yeah. With zip ties. It's a ball." Tony scoffed

"It wasn't my idea," she replied

"Okay. So you took Killian's card."

"I took his money." Mara sternly replied

"And here you are 13 years later, in a dungeon."

"No."

"Yeah."

"No," Maya sternly said "you're in a dungeon. I'm free to go."

"Yeah?" Tony raised his brow.

Maya looked at him and then sighed, walking over to him "A lot has happened, Tony. But I'm close. EXTREMIS is practically stabilized."

Tony frowned at her

"I'm telling you it isn't. I'm on the street. People are going bang. They're painting the walls. Maya, you're kidding yourself."

"Then help me fix it."

When Tony shot her a confused look, she pulled out a very old card which read- _'You know who I'm'_.

Definitely something Tony would do when he had to leave early after a one night stand. She turned over the card, where there was some mathematical equation written. That, Tony, did not do after a one night stand

"Did I do that?" he asked and he could have sworn she looked heartbroken that he didn't recognize his own writing

"Yes."

"I remember the night, not the morning." he replied, "Is this what you've been chasing around?"

"You don't remember?"

"I can't help you." Tony exclaimed "You used to have moral psychology. You used to have ideals. You wanted to help people. Now, look at you. I get to wake up every morning with someone who still has their soul. Every morning I'm with someone who loves me just because she does. And I get to spend every day with someone who trusts me, believes in me and would never let me go. Neither of them would" Tony took a deep staggering breath as Rose's image flashed in his head. Where was his baby? He just prayed wherever she was, she and Pepper both were fine

He looked at her, almost pleading

"Get me out of here...Come on."

He saw her eyes getting wet as she turned around just as another voice spoke up

"You know what my old man used to say to me? One of his favorite of many sayings... "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."" Killian entered the premises, holding a briefcase with him

"You're not still pissed off about the Switzerland thing, are you?" Tony asked, looking at Killian in front of him

"How can I be pissed at you, Tony? I'm here to thank you. You gave me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given me." Killian paused "Desperation. If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? Well, for the first 20 minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour... I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby. If you know what I mean."

Tony frowned "Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the first mouse."

"But as I looked out over that city, nobody knew I was there, nobody could see me, no one was even looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity, Tony. Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since. Right?" Killian glanced at Maya who shot him a nervous smile

"You simply rule from behind the scenes." Killian continued walking to the table and opening the briefcase "Because the second you give evil a face, a bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin, you hand the people a target."

"You're something else." Tony deadpanned

"You have met him, I assume?"

"Yes." Tony replied "Sir Laurence Oblivier."

"I know he's a little...over the top sometimes. It's not entirely my fault. He has a tenden...He's a stage actor. They say his Lear was the toast of Croydon, wherever that is." Killian shrugged "Anyway, the point is, ever since that big dude with the hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety has kind of had its day."

"What's next for you in your world?" Tony asked

"Well, I wanted to repay you the selfsame gift that you so graciously imparted to me." Killian smiled and pulled out three metallic orbs, tossing them on the floor

"Desperation." Killian smiled as the orbs hummed and a hologram of Pepper stapped to something appeared. she was in pain, he could see and there was a faint orange-y glow in her body

"Now, this is live." Killian said "I'm not sure if you can tell, but at this moment the body is trying to decide whether to accept EXTREMIS or just give up. And if it gives up, I have to say, the detonation is quite spectacular. But until that point, it's really just a lot of pain."

Tony looked at Pepper, eyes wide. He was feeling so guilty of dragging her into this. He had lost Rose, he wasn't going to lose Pepper

"Now," Killian added "I'm not sure it is enough to make you desperate, so I have something else for you" he clicked on something and Pepper's image was replaced with Rose's.

Tony's eyes widened to inhuman measures. His daughter was strapped onto something similar. But the glow of the EXTREMIS was missing. But that didn't help. She was looking deathly pale and weak, her once bright pink hair was wet and she was half-naked.

"She's an interesting thing, little Rose" Killian chuckled "And a challenge. I tried injecting her with EXTREMIS and you know what, not only did her body reject it, she's in perfect condition"

Tony almost pounced on the man. How dare he touch his daughter and fiance?

"Killian, let Rose go. She's a child. You have your beef with me. Let Pepper and Rose go" Tony requested

Killian raised a brow and chuckled

"And she really is very special, isn't Rose? Magic, that's her secret, right?"

Tony's eyes widened. No way would Rose ever tell anyone that. Even SHIELD had incomplete information on her capabilities.

"Oh yes, she told me everything. Unlike you, Rosie is very cooperative"

"Don't call her that" Tony growled

"She said the same to me" Killian nodded "anyway, Rose has opened the doors for a lot of research for AIM. And unlike you, she's helping us make the perfect serum"

Tony didn't believe it. Rose would never help someone like Killian. No way. But then he realized that Pepper was their captive too. And if anything, Rose loved Pepper a lot and would do anything for her.

Killian was dead meat. Tony would make sure of that

he clicked the button again and the humming ceased and the hologram faded

"We haven't even talked about salary yet. What kind of perk package are you thinking of?" Killian asked, pocketing the controller

"Hold on, hold on."

the two men turned to look at Maya who was pointing something at her neck

"Let him go," she said

"Maya..." Killian sighed

"I said, let him go."

"What are you doing?"

"1200 CCs." Maya gulped "A dose half of this size, I'm dead."

Killian sighed and looked at Tony

"It's times like this my temper is tested somewhat." and then he turned to Maya "Maya, give me the injector."

"If I die, Killian, what happens to your soldiers? What happens to your product?"

"We're not doing this, okay?" Killian tried

"What happens to you? What happens if you go too hot?"

Killian took a deep breath and the next thing Tony knew, he shot her. Maya fell on the ground, her bullet wound bleeding uncontrollably.

Killian sighed again and turned to Tony

"A high-level position has just been vacated."

Tony glared at Killian

"You are a maniac."

"No, I'm a visionary." Killian replied "But I do own a maniac. And he takes the stage tonight." and with that, he left

* * *

Tony was alive. Tony Stark was alive. Her father was alive.

Rose had not felt any more hopeful or happy ever since she was captured.

Pepper had since then unable to speak as her grunts had only increased. Now her whole body was occasionally glowing orange on short intervals and Rose remotely knew what it meant.

"Pep" she whispered,

A click brought her attention to the doctor and she saw him adjusting a Camera on a tripod which focused on her

"Okay," the man nodded "Subject- 22 years old, female and enhanced. She can manipulate energy according to her will in a protective fashion. Survived EXTREMIS phase 1 without exploding even after discharging the whole amount of the serum that was injected.

EXTREMIS 2.0 serum is a modified form of the basic formula tailored specifically for the subject with her own blood as a core component. Now to see if her body accepts this serum"

he walked to her.

"No!" she yelled as strongly as she could struggling and squirming "Don't you dare. Stay away from me you motherfucker"

and at that moment the doctor injected the serum into her. Rose almost cried and screamed out from all the pain. Unlike before, this was different. It was equally painful if not more, but then she felt her magic. and it accepted the serum. her magic accepted the EXTREMIS 2.0.

"It worked" she heard the man muttered in glee

Oh she was doomed

* * *


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Mandarin/Killian is dead meat, swear to God"  
> -a lot of people

Tony briefly wondered if he could just get out of the zip ties somehow. Then he'd be free. And he could find his girlfriend and daughter. Suddenly, his watch began beeping then, sitting on the counter, and he nearly grinned. One of the guards picked it up and he shot him a warning look.

"Careful, there. It's a limited edition," Tony told him firmly. The man began to shake it. "Hey, uh, Ponytail Express. What's the mileage count between Tennessee and Miami?"

"832 miles," he answered Tony quickly and he shot him an impressed look.

"Very nice," Tony muttered

"I'm good like that," the man said, taking the compliment, and as the beeping continued, he pointed to the watch with his gun. "Can you, uh, stop that?"

"Break it, you bought it," Tony warned them. The man met his eyes, dropped the watch, and stomped on it.

Oh, they were going down.

"I think I bought it," he gave Tony a smug look.

"Okay, that wasn't mine to give away," Tony said, unimpressed. "That belongs to my friend's sister. And that's why I'm gonna kill you first."

"What are you gonna do to me?" he taunted him.

"You'll see,"

"You're zip-tied to a bed,"

"This," Tony said raising his arms. And when nothing happened, "That."

Ugh how much Tony hated delayed responses. He'd definitely have to look into it once he gets he out. And Rose with him too

"Trust me, you're gonna be in a puddle of blood on the ground in five, four, three; come on! Two," Tony tried again, but nothing.

Where was his suit? Why was this taking so long?

"How did we get this shift?" the shorthaired man looked done with him. Well, Tony was just as done with him too.

"All right," Tony warned them. "I'm gonna give you a chance to escape. Put down your weapons. Tie yourselves to those chairs. I'll let you live. In five, four, bang!"

The two of them looked at him utterly unimpressed and he sighed internally.

It was hard to be intimidating when things weren't working.

"You should be gone by now. You should've already been gone," Tony said seriously.

"I am just beyond terrified," the long-haired man mocked, still pointing the gun at him.

"Here it comes. Three, four," Tony started again.

"Shut up,"

"Five, four, three, two, one!"

But this time, as something broke the glass then.

Tony shot them a smirk, as his gauntlet hit the man in the head and attached itself to his wrist, "Told you."

He shot the shorter-haired man with the repulsor, as the bed frame he was on a spin around. He used the gauntlet to break herself out of the zip ties, as the man with the gun game for him again. Tony hit him on the head with the part of the armor he had on, as the foot piece came in then, and attached itself to his body.

Tony raised the gun, fallen closeby, in their direction as he looked upwards at the sound of clamoring footsteps

* * *

Rose felt weird. Not like before. But still weird.

Her body accepting EXTREMIS 2.0 was freaking her out. She had no symptoms like before where she tired, in pain before she heaved out the entire thing. No, she felt like someone had put a gallon of Red Bull in her veins. A magically and genetically modified Red Bull. She felt powerful, way more powerful. Like she had taken the revitalizing potion in excess.

"It's working" she heard the mean whisper in glee.

She completely ignored him and looked at Pepper, whose body was slightly less glowing right now.

"Hey Window Face" she looked at the doctor, who consciously adjusted his glasses "What's going on with her?"

Rose really tried to not let worry cloud her voice. She had to be strong and these people might have just helped her more than damage her.

"it looks like her body has accepted the EXTREMIS" the doctor informed her

Rose did a take. Her body wasn't sweating. And she didn't feel tired. She looked forward and noticed some paperwork on the table. So while the doctor's focus was somewhere else, she tried to magically sense what was written. It was the EXTREMIS formula. Extremely useful. she tried to magically teleport it to a safe location- a small version of apparation on a second party, and it worked. Her magic was up to limit. Maybe even exceeded the limit.

Next, she tried to magically unbind herself.

"Relashio" she harshly whispered and could feel the bindings unwrapping themselves. She almost smiled to herself.

And the next moment she knew, the bindings snapped open and she was thrown from the stretcher. She landed with a thud and looked up, seeing the scared look of the doctor. Oh, he was in so much trouble right now. She quickly got up, ignoring the soreness and knots of her body.

With trembling steps, the man was receding

"Please. Don't...don't hu-hurt me. I'm sorry. I j-just did what-" he yelped as he pushed something "what Killian asked me too. Please. I'm sorry"

Despite his begs, Rose was deaf to them. She was angry. Scratch that. she was downright livid.

How dare they attack her home? Kidnap the women she had closest to a mother and experiment on her? Almost kill the man who meant the world to her?

Rose snarled to herself as she felt the magic building. Her fingers tingled with raw power. Next thing she knew, she extended her hand at him. the man stopped whimpering and then everything went silent, except Pepper's own painful whimpers.

Rose noticed her hand glowing and quickly retracted them, staring at them in surprise. It wasn't the first time her hands glowed. They did a lot of time when she did wandless magic but usually, they glowed green or in some cases blue or white. But right now they were reddish-orange. Rose slowly raised her head and looked where the doctor earlier was. in his place was now a small lizard, which quickly scurried off at the sight of someone bigger than it.

Rose glanced back at her hands. How had she done that? Usual transfiguration spells like that required a lot of power but she just pulled it off without a sweat.

Another whimper broke her thoughts reverie. She looked back at Pepper

"Pep" she whispered and rushed to her, tugging the binds lose.

She had unbound her one hand when the warehouse's doors were slammed open and men with assault rifles entered

"Shit!" she muttered as all the guns were pointed at her "Shit! SHIT!"

She quickly conjured a protective shield as the shootings began. She slightly winced but overall she was surprised at the strength of the barrier. they had always been strong and impenetrable, but this was one solid barrier, not to mention in orange and not it's usually white.

Once the shootings lessened, Rose threw an offensive spell that had them all down on their ass. With a mere gesture, she destroyed all the rifles and turned her attention to her groaning best friend

"Just a minute and I'll have you out" she whispered, quickly undoing the bindings. She could have used magic, but her EXTREMIS 2.0 enhanced magic and Pepper's EXTREMIS didn't sound a good mix

And there was another clamor of footsteps. and every single door that the warehouse had been slammed open, men in bulletproof vests holding larger machine guns entered

Rose did a sweep. It had to be around 200. How the hell did Killian get so many men?

"Surrender, now!" a voice boomed

Rose flexed her neck as she felt her fingers tingle

"I'll be damned" she muttered, throwing the first offensive spell she knew at the nearest group

* * *

"What is our ETA?" Steve asked as he walked closer to Clint

"4 minutes" the archer replied

Steve went back to his seat and joined Nat to look over the information SHIELD had on Killian, again. it still disgusted him the lengths people had gone to recreate the serum. Banner had the worst side-effect anyone could ask for.

And this Killian was no good. He was already on SHIELD's wanted list when his secret human experimentation was revealed to them, but he was pushed down as Mandarin emerged.

Personally, Steve was emotionally rounding himself to see Tony and tell him that Rose was captured by Mandarin. That she was hurt, injured and probably experimented on. And that they had also lost Pepper to Mandarin. He also considered the possibility that Tony may know about Rose and Pepper himself but he didn't want to take any chances

The closest he had to family was Bucky, who had died falling from the train. Now he felt terrible having to tell a father about his daughter and fiance. Even if the said father was an egoistic, self-centered, narcissistic man and way over in his head. But Steve had seen the Rose and Tony of them together and he never doubted that Tony loved Rose to bits and pieces.

Steve grunted and kept the tablet back. he went back to his tactic. Find Mandarin, capture him or kill him- the latter sounded better- find Tony and free Pepper and Rose

* * *

Tony was jumping on his toes. pieces of his suit were yet to come

"Where's the rest?" he muttered uneasily, as he could see more men coming into the room. He shot them with both of his repulsor and the gun, before using the one thruster he had, to shoot herself up in the air. Tony tried to take out as many men as he could before he had run out of ammo.

Tony swore as he realized he was still outnumbered, and without the rest of the suit, he was still very vulnerable to their bullets. Grunting, he maneuvered around the room with the parts of the suit he did have with ease, dodging their shots.

Until there was just one man left.

Tony pointed her gun at him with quite a smug

"Honestly, I hate working here. They are so weird," The man whimpered. Tony sighed and dropped the gun and backed out of the room. He wasn't worth it.

Tony ran through the halls, trying to leave the dungeon, as the rest of the suit slowly came and attached itself to him.

"Ah! Better late than never," Tony almost cried of happiness, as he waited just for the faceplate to arrive. the thing hovered for a few minutes "Not this time. Not the face."

He held his hand out, catching the mask as he carefully put it on.

"Phew! It's good to be back. Hi, buddy," Tony smile

"Hello, Sir," JARVIS said, "I am glad to see you are still doing well."

A Helicopter flew above, and he looked up and saw the War Machine flying above. Why was Rhodey here? Curios, Tony cleared his throat

"Let's go!" he said, trying to power up the thrusters only for them not to work.

"Great" he muttered and ran towards the stairs, calling Rhodey along the way

" _Tony_ ," Rhodey said, picking up instantly.

"Tell me that's you in the suit," Tony said

" _No_ ," Rhodey confirmed, and she swore, " _You got yours?_ "

"Uh," Tony said, "Kind of. The main house, as fast as you can. There's somebody I'd like you to meet."

* * *

Rose was amazed. Whatever the doctor had done, it was great. Or very stupid. she had been using magic nonstop for about 15 minutes and she wasn't even panting.

she had taken out most of the small army that had entered. Once dealt with the men, she freed Pepper, carrying the woman in her arms when she stopped. Near the exit stood a man. He looked a bit familiar. Bald and an evil look, yeah he was Killian's for sure.

"You are too good, doll" he sneered

And for the first time, Rose suddenly became conscious of her state of undress. Not in a bad way. She was well gifted with a toned body. But she didn't like the way his eyes were roaming on her body. 

"And you are?" she asked

"Doesn't matter" the man chuckled stepping forward "No one has to get hurt. Let that woman go, and get back to your stretcher. And we'll call it even"

Rose frowned "How about a no?"

the man stopped, furrowing his own brows "Have it your way then. Boss is really gonna hate this but whatever needs to be done"

With that, the man started glowing orange in a familiar way and pulled out his guns and shot

Rose didn't waste a moment in conjuring a barrier. She could feel her own body glowing, including her eyes. The power in her made her giddy

The man grunted in irritation once the bullets ended, threw them away and charged at her. He himself started glowing orange and punched hard, but not a single scratch appeared on the shield. 

and honestly, Rose was having enough. Before she could do anything, she heard the backdoor slam open and there stood three people. And soon more appeared. And they weren't army-sorta people. They were EXTREMIS hyped people. 

She gently laid Pepper on the floor and squared her shoulders

"shall we get on with it, people?"

* * *


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Whose idea was it to bring the Avengers together? they are clearly children trapped in adult bodies. All of them. Except, one of them is an actual child!"  
> -James 'Rhodey' Rhodes

The quinjet landed at a secured location and at once the three occupants stepped out, completely suited

Steve looked at Natasha, who had a small scanner in her hands

"To where?"

"War Machine suit is now airborne. but I can trace its last location" Natasha said zooming in on the map "Looks like some kind of ship on a dockyard about...6 miles from here"

"Doable" Clint nodded, swinging his bow across his body

"Alright" Natasha nodded

* * *

Tony walked into the room, holding up a ping pong battle as the two men aimed guns at him. Only for Rhodey to burst through the window and take them out. And he was not wearing any kind of armor.

How did he manage to always look so much cooler doing everything, while he gets a lecture from Rose and Pepper?

"What have you come as?" Slattery asked Rhodey, looking interested.

"You make a move, and I break your face," Rhodey pointed a gun at him.

"I never thought people had been hurt. They lied to me," Slattery said, looking pitiful.

"This is the Mandarin?" Rhodey said with the same exasperation he'd had earlier. A 'Are you shitting me?' expression.

"Yeah, I know, it's embarrassing," Tony scoffed, just as annoyed as Rhodey was.

"Hi, Trevor. Trevor Slattery," Trevor introduced himself, sticking his hand out for a shake, but Rhodey slapped it away with his gun. "I know I'm shorter in person. A bit smaller. Everyone says that. But, um, hey, if you're here to arrest me, there are some people I'd like to roll on."

"Here's how it works, Meryl Streep," Tony interrupted firmly, "You tell him where Pepper and Rose are, and he'll stop doing it."

He totally ignored the shocked look Rhodey shot him.

"Doing what?" Trevor asked, confused.

Rhodey leaned down and burned him with a hot barrel of the gun near his ear

"Ow," Trevor yelped, "That hurt. I get it! I get it! I don't know about any Pepper or Rose, but I know about the plan."

"Spill," Tony barked.

"Do you know what they did to my suit?" Rhodey asked.

"What? No," Slattery brushed him off. "But I do know it's happening off the coast. Something to do with a big boat. I can take you there."

He hollered, as a goal in the football match on the tv behind them had been shot in. "Ole', ole', ole', ole'"

"Tony, I swear to God, I'm gonna blow his face-off," Rhodey warned Tony.

"Oh, and this next bit may include the vice president as well. Is that important?" Trevor added

"Somewhat," Tony grunted. If this went on, he probably would be the one to shoot the man.

"Yeah, a little bit," Rhodey said sarcastically.

"So?" Tony said, turning to Rhodey.

"What are we going to do? I mean, we don't have any transport," he reminded Tony.

"Hey, Ringo." Tony suddenly looked at Trevor "Didn't you say something about a 'lovely speedboat'?"

* * *

Rose was glad she ever got training in hand to hand combat. While it was hard to fend off herself while also protecting Pepper, it wasn't impossible. Even if it was about 10 people attacking her at once, she managed with her magic. Not caring if she broke bones, limbs or their necks. Something about the EXTREMIS 2.0 turned her....vindictive and aggressive. 

Rose blew out a long breath as she threw away the man whose hand she had just shattered and looked at the bald idiot

"this is the best Killian got? No wonder he's still such a loser"

The bald idiot growled and lunged at her only for her to dodge, grab his arm and throw him on the floor forcefully. the ground beneath cracked as he groaned. She didn't take a break but punched him hard on the face multiple times. Unless she was pretty sure she broke his nose or better, jaw. 

Once she was sure that she definitely broke his face, she picked him by his leg and again slammed him on the concrete floor. Well, at least there were some perks of EXTREMIS 2.0 by the looks of it.

She got up and headed for Pepper, who was on the other side of the warehouse. Just as she crouched to pick Pepper, she felt a shooting pain on her back. Reaching out, she pulled what resembled a dart. She turned around, pissed more only to see a bloody bald idiot, chuckling and holding out a dart gun. Rose was a bit surprised to see that his body was now starting to heal him back bit by bit but not enough for him to put on another fight with her

"Like I said, doll, you are too good" he chuckled again with a groan

Rose slightly stumbled on her feet, having to take upon the nearby wall's support

"Like it? Xylazine. it's a pretty heavy hitter"

Horse tranq? Really?

She fell on her knees as her breath got shorter

"You are different" the man, got up and started walking towards her, almost limping. He crouched, wincing, came face to face with her. Rose counted it as a victory if she could make him limp. he must have been special because no one else she had beaten down had gotten up but him. Of course, he would be Killian's right hand

"You are stronger. not to mention quite powerful"

"You sonofabi-"

"Now now now" the man chuckled "Can't have the pretty CEO swearing, can we?" he snorted

Rose grunted, trying to punch him, but he just leaned back with a laugh "Don't try princess. the thing's got a heavy dose"

the man then got up and headed to where Pepper was and picked her up

"The Boss would like to see you. You seem his type, doll" he chuckled and walked out

"Pep" she breathed out hard

She leaned back, focusing on controlling her breathing and trying to burn the tranq faster. She already had a metabolism faster than regular humans, and she prayed that EXTREMIS 2.0 had enhanced that as well

* * *

"If he's right about the location, we're twenty minutes from where Pepper and Rose are," Tony said determinedly as the boat sailed on through the waters.

"This Killian guy has Rose?" Rhodey asked, worry lacing his voice. Tony pressed his lips into a thin line. Rhodey had as much credit as he had in raising Rose, even if he spent a good amount of time overseas. And ~~his~~ their little girl had let them known countless times that Rhodey was her most favorite uncle of all

"Yeah" Tony sighed "Killian showed me. They have both my girls on EXTREMIS and..." he sighed again "Rose was not looking good. Pepper wasn't either but Rose looked worse than her." there was a pause "I don't know what I'll do if something happened to her, Rhodey. I can't lose Rose again"

"She's a force to be reckoned with, Tony" Rhodey squeezed his shoulder "She's a war vet. She can handle herself against some terrorists"

Tony tiredly nodded but said nothing

"But we also have to figure out this Vice President thing, right?" Rhodey confirmed with Tony, looking slightly torn.

And Tony didn't blame him. On one side was one of the most important men in America. And the other was his only family. Their family

how were they to save one and sacrifice the other

"I'll get on calling him," Tony said, as he began to dial him on the phone.

" _Hello_?" the vice president answered, almost immediately.

"Sir, this is Tony Stark," he said, as Rhodey stood beside him, a comforting presence.

" _Welcome back to the land of the living,_ " the man said, sounding unsurprised. For all he had known, Tony was dead, yet clearly, to the Vice President, it didn't make too big of a difference. Well, nice to know people cared about him. and he didn't even bother asking about Rose. she was the one who was dealing with the army on defensive weapons.

Once this was over, he was really going to have Rose revisit all the clauses of the agreement

"We believe you're about to be drawn into the Mandarin campaign. We have to get you somewhere safe as soon as possible," Tony told him quickly,

" _Mr. Stark, I'm about to eat honey-roast ham, surrounded by the Agency's finest. The president's safe on Air Force One with Colonel Rhodes. I think we're good, here,"_ he said, brushing off his attempts.

He hated men like him sometimes. And Rose and Pepper, both, were excellent in dealing with men like him.

But then it struck. Did he just say the President was on Air Force one with Rhodey?

Tony looked over at his friend, as he realized suddenly where the Iron Patriot Armour had taken off to suddenly.

"Sir, this is Colonel Rhodes," Rhodey took the phone from him, having heard the last part. "They're using the Iron Patriot as a Trojan horse. They're gonna take out the President somehow. We have to immediately alert that plane."

" _Okay, I'm on it,_ " his voice grew somber. " _I'll have security lock it down. If need be, they can have F-22s in the air in 30 seconds. Thank you, Colonel._ "

"Rhodes and Stark out," Rhodey said, ending the call.

"We gotta make a decision. We can either save the President, or Pepper and Rose. We can't do both," Rhodey said and Tony felt his heart drop.

How could they choose? How could they choose between the President and their family? The women who had been by Tony's side for every up and for nearly as long as he remembered? Through the many times he'd nearly died, all the scandals the media had exaggerated? Through everything?

"Sir," JARVIS cut through the tension "I have an update from Malibu. The cranes have finally arrived, and the cellar doors are being cleared as we speak,"

"And what about the suit I'm wearing?" Tony asked, looking down at the damaged suit on his body.

"The armor is now at 92%,"

"That's going to have to do," Tony muttered. "Rhodey, I know what we need to do. And I don't like it one bit."

Before either of them could say anything, JARVIS interrupted

"Sir, you are having an incoming call from Agent Romanoff"

Tony frowned and looked at Rhodey who shrugged

"Put it through," he said

" _Stark_?"

"Is that relief I hear in your voice, Romanoff?" Tony couldn't help it, he really couldn't. Even Rhodey's lips gave out a small twitch

" _Oh screw you"_ she snapped " _Where are you?_ "

"Why?"

" _Because we are coming to help_ "

"We?" Rhodey asked

" _Me, Barton and Rogers_ " she replied, " _Now your location?_ "

"We are heading to a ship at the dockyard on a speedboat"

" _We'll be at the location by the time should you reach most probably_ "

"That's good" Tony nodded "Wait. there's more. The War Machi-, I mean Iron Patriot has been compromised"

Rhodey literally facepalmed earning a questioning look from Tony. What did he say?

" _What_?" Romanoff asked

"What Tony means is they have stolen my suit"

" _Do either of you have any idea where it is heading?_ "

"Air force one" Tony replied

* * *

20 minutes. It took 20 minutes to almost burn out the huge amount of Xylazine they had darted her. a few more minutes and she could completely burn that stupid tranq in her body and go find Pepper. And then blow Killian into smithereens.

* * *

Tony had JARVIS track down ~~War Machine's~~ Iron Patriot's exact location which led the two straight to them. With practiced ease, Rhodey led the two of them into the ship. They quickly dashed around, hiding behind some huge crates. Rhodey glanced at his best friend and nodded as the two of them readied their guns to shoot

Only for someone to tap on Tony's shoulder. With fast reflexes, he turned around, aiming the gun ready to shoot. and he would have if he hadn't seen the person

"Really, Stark? a gun doesn't suit you" Natasha said dryly rolling her eyes

"Good to know that you are happy to see me alive" Tony bit back noticing Captain America and Hawkeye behind her, all suited up with their respective weapons

"Stark" He gave a curt nod

"Hey shellhead" Clint chuckled "But really, I agree with Nat. A gun doesn't suit you"

Tony rolled his eyes again "Barton. Cap" 

"What do you have?" Natasha asked

"We've got Killian up there somewhere. and a bunch of genetically modified soldiers. that's all" Tony shrugged

"Any hostages?" Steve asked

"Two" Rhodey came forward "As of now"

"They've got Pepper and Rose" Tony added

* * *

Steve's eye's widened and he tried not to show his expression of relief. Okay, so Rose was here. And so was Pepper. So they could hit two birds with a single stone.

"How's Rose?" Natasha asked

"She is their lab rat with Pepper" Tony grunted, clearly in the anger

"What do you mean?" Steve frowned

Tony sighed

"Killian's been experimenting on her. That's all I know."

Fear was gripping him on the inside. Experiment? what kind? Steve wanted so many answers but first, he needed to get both the women out

"for how long?" Clint asked

"Since the house went down, I suppose" Tony replied 

"You wouldn't know where's Hansen too, would you?" Nat asked

"Killian killed her" Stark almost spat out

"If you all are done with the chit chat, we've got my friend and god-daughter to rescue" the man accompanying Tony butted in and looked at the three of them

"I'm sorry, but have we met?" Steve asked

"Colonel James Rhodes" the man introduced himself "A friend of Tony and Pepper's and Rose's godfather."

"Well, I'm Hawke-"

"Don't bother, I know who you are"

Steve didn't respond but did share a look with Clint, who slightly pouted at being interrupted.

"what's the plan?" Tony asked "I hope you lot got a plan"

"I'm going above" Clint answered and disappeared, probably to find something to climb. Nat handed the two men comm devices only for them to refuse. 

"We got our own" Tony responded 

The other four started moving as unnoticed as they could. Nat and Steve would occasionally look up to canvas the surrounding

 _"Uh...guys? 11 o'clock_ " Clint's voice came through their comms

the four shared looks but did peek out to look at their 11. 

"Oh, my God," Steve breathed out.

There was the President in the Iron Patriot armor, strung up in the air over a huge oil tank

"That's what they are going to use Rhodey's suit for?" Tony almost scoffed

"He's strung up over the oil tanker. They're gonna light him up, man," Rhodey said, sounding worried.

"Viking funeral," Natasha grimly muttered "Public execution,"

 _"Yeah, death by oil,_ " Clint confirmed.

"We need to move fast," Tony told them all. "Get him down before the broadcast starts."

"You don't have a suit, Tony," Rhodey said, "Plus you're hurt."

"I know how to fight," Tony almost snapped "And right now, we need all the help we can get if we're going to bring this guy down."

"Stay in the shadows," Natasha warned. "We can't be seen."

Tony nodded, as they made their way through the shipping yard, carefully climbing on top of a ladder to get closer to the President.

"Broadcast will commence shortly. Take final positions," the four heard a voice say on the PA system.

"Is your gun up?" Rhodey asked Tony as through the levels.

Tony shot him a look and quickly raised his gun, "Yep. What do I do?"

"Stay on my six, cover high and don't shoot me in the back," Rhodey ordered for which Tony nodded

"Mmhm, Six, high, back. All right."

 _"You've been spotted"_ Before Clint could finish, the shot came out of nowhere as the four crouched to the ground. Tony grunted and slightly standing up to shoot in response but crouched back as quickly as the shots came down like rain

"Son of a bitch!" Tony grunted

Steve wanted to scold him for using inappropriate language around a woman but refrained. Something zoomed towards their attackers and blasted. When the shots ended, Tony got up and shot back which effectively missed the target, hitting the glass

"You see that? Nailed it," Tony said, sounding proud of himself.

"Yeah, you really killed the glass," Natasha deadpanned.

Rhodey suddenly coughed, for which Tony shot him a glare

"You think I was aiming for the bulb?" Tony looked at the assassin asked, who was giving him a look, "Besides, it's not like you can hit a bulb at this distance."

Natasha gave him a look, before standing up from her position and shot a bulb dead on.

"Fine, I guess you can," Tony dryly said, which earned him a smirk

 _"You guys can't shut up, could you?"_ Clint asked

"Shut it Barton" Tony replied

" _what I meant was that they made you guys. Second time"_

It was soon followed by

"All personnel, we have hostiles on east unit 12. I repeat, hostiles on east unit 12," a voice cried over the PA.

"Well I guess our cover is blown," Rhodey rolled his eyes at the antics of his fellows and cocked his gun.

"Stay here," Natasha said as she walked away, crouched.

there were some grunts and followed by some thuds

"We are clear" Nat called.

the three men stood up from the hiding to see four men on the cold hard floor knocked out

"Wow. It's great. amazing" Rhodey looked at her in awe, earning a jab from Tony

"We've got company," Steve said, looking behind Rhodey and Tony as he pulled down his shield. the other three turned around to see three guys, one girl, all armed, heading towards them

"God, I would kill for some armor right now," Rhodey muttered, frustrated. he raised his gun and started shooting, Nat and Tony following his suit before they found another container to hide behind. soon three arrows zipped and lodged into the EXTREMIS targets, knocking them all down. 

"where even is he?" Rhodey asked

" _Watching over you lot, Rhodes_ " Clint replied

"We need backup," Tony said, wincing at the shots fired from somewhere else

"We are your backup" Nat deadpanned

"You guys are not cutting it" Rhodey replied "Yeah, we need a bunch,"

"You know what?" Tony said, looking up at the sky

the three followed his gaze and heard a faint buzz as noticed a couple of light spots heading for them, which soon increased

"Is that?" Rhodey asked as the bright lights got closer and it became clear what they were.

"Yep," Tony proudly replied

"Are those?" Nat asked almost in awe. But being who was she was, gave her the ability to school her featured. Tony really expected more from her

 _"Holy shit"_ Clint almost gasped

"Yeah," Tony almost beamed, as all the suits stood in front of them in the sky, ready for action. "Merry Christmas."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone. I hope you all are staying safe during this quarantine and dark times. Honestly, it's a bit scary. I'll be finishing this and bring up the next story within the next few days. Do comment and leave kudos. I also need smiles dring these hard days


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Starks are one fucked up family. Cute, loyal, powerful but fucked up"  
> -Clint Barton

Tony's smirk widened as everyone in the vicinity seemed surprised at his Iron Legion

"JARVIS," Tony began "Target EXTREMIS heat signatures. Disable with extreme prejudice."

"Yes, sir." came the reply from the AI but the suits remained hovered

"What are you waiting for?" Tony asked "It's Christmas. Take them to church."

* * *

Rose groaned. pushing herself off the floor. She shook her head slightly, collecting her thoughts. Her eyes roamed over the warehouse once only looking at the dead or knocked out EXTREMIS people on the ground. 

Right now, her priority was finding Pepper

She steadily got up, ignoring the small pain she felt in her muscles and took a deep breath

"Quidest perditus quero" she muttered. A few seconds and she pinpointed Pepper's exact location. She let out another deep breath and focusing on the location, apparated

* * *

Tony jumped over a catwalk as others followed him. An attack by some EXTREMIS soldier caused their platform to tremble and go out of control, causing the four their to hold on the railings

"JARVIS," Tony called into his comm "get Igor to steady this thing."

Soon one of his suits held on the catwalk for the four to walk over

"This is how you've been managing your downtime, huh?" Rhodey asked, almost smirking

"Everybody needs a hobby," Tony replied

"Most people take on gardening" Natasha grunted, shooting some of the armed men

Tony frowned at her, when he noticed one of his suits struggling with the soldiers over Nat's shoulder

"Heartbreaker, help Red Snapper out, will you?"

he looked back up to meet the incredulous looks from both Captain and Natasha

"What?"

Steve shook his head slightly before taking on an EXTREMIS soldier headed for them and jumping to the lower catwalk. Another arrow buzzed almost next to head, only to embed into an EXTREMIS soldier in the middle of his eyes, instantly killing him

_"Your welcome, Stark"_

Tony ignored that. He looked around and found a suit stopping near him, opening in so Tony jumped in

"Oh, yeah. That's awesome." Rhodey was smirking at the performance of Tony's suits. Then he looked at Tony as the suit started wrapping itself around "Give me a suit, okay?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Tony replied, not really sounding apologetic "they're only coded to me."

"What does that mean?" Rhodey asked

"I got you covered." with that Tony turned and flew off

Rhodey's eyes landed on Natasha, who shrugged back "He's your best friend"

Rhodey frowned when a suit approached him

"Can I give you a lift?" JARVIS asked

"Very funny," Rhodey grunted

* * *

Rose appeared in another lab-like place. Only this seemed more of an empty shipping container rather than a warehouse. She quietly walked around, finally spotting Pepper on another tilted stretcher. But this time there were no EXTREMIS IV or anything. It was like they were studying her. 

Rose quickly canvassed the place. No one but Pepper and it felt strange. But never the one to miss any opportunity, Rose dashed towards Pepper and she started working on the binds, quickly freeing her

"Pepper? Pepper!" she shook the redhead, who groaned and slowly opened her eyes

"Rose?"

"Yeah. Yea, it's me. Come on. We gotta leave"

Rose looked around then back at Pepper "Can you stand up?"

"I think" Pepper weakly replied

Rose helped Pepper up, who leaned ore on Rose for support. 

And suddenly the whole place shook completely, causing both the women to lose their footing.

"Look out!"

Rose was suddenly shoved away as a huge amount of railing fell from above, right where Rose was earlier. She panted, eyeing the metal bars and plates on the floor before she quickly shot up

"Pepper?!"

"I'm okay. I'm fi-whoa!"

the whole place shook again, causing more metal bars to fell down and move, creating more debris between the two. Rose just backed away. a huge creaking sound made her look above. the remaining metal bars were also coming loose and ready to fall. She slowly raised her hand steadying the roof bars. 

Just then she heard something in a very familiar voice

"About time"

the container shook again but slightly this time, followed by Pepper panicked voice

"Stop! Put it down. Put it down. Put it down."

The shaking stopped, 

"See what happens when you hang out with my ex-girlfriends?" Tony asked

"You're such a jerk." Pepper chuckled

"Yep. We'll talk about it over dinner."

Rose's eyes got a little blurry with tears. Tony and Pepper both were fine. That was great. Amazing. Abruptly, loud sounds of metal creaking resonated and she heard a choked sob

"Come on. A little more, baby." Tony offered

"Rose. Tony, save Rose" Pepper's voice came strained

"I will. First you, baby. Come on"

Rose mentally applauded Tony. And made a mental note to do it later in person

She grunted, extending her magic a bit more to stabilize the falling container. And then she heard a loud clang and a thud

****"Is this guy bothering you?"

Rose's eyes started glowing in wrath when she heard Killian

"Don't get up. Ooh. Is it hot in there?" Killian added followed by another loud clang "Stuck? Do you feel a little stuck? Like a little turtle, cooking in his little turtle suit."

"Tony." Pepper chocked

A thud and then Killian's irritating voice

"She's watching. I think you should close your eyes. Close your eyes. Close your eyes. You don't want to see this."

Rose wasn't sure who Killian was asked to close their eyes, but if he hurt either of those two people, Killian was so dead

And then, the container shook so loudly, that Rose's concentration broke, causing whatever metal bars she was stabilizing to start falling. Rose had no choice but to step back as the bars kept on falling until she realized too late that there was no more floor left for her. Her footing slipped and she yelped, barely managing to hold on to the container as she hung in the air

She couldn't hear a word about what was going on in front. 

Only for that silence to be pierced by a loud feminine scream. 

"Pepper" Rose muttered in horror. Taking in a short breath, Rose looked down where a catwalk was visible. it wasn't exactly close, not that she had other options. Between a destroying container and a far away catwalk, the latter sounded better. So, she let go

* * *

Tony glared at the man in front of him. He hated Killian and wanted to tear him down to every single fiber of his body. He pushed back his tears. He just failed Pepper. he just let her fall to her death.

"A shame. I would've caught her." Killian shrugged, looking where Pepper fell before looking at him "What are you gonna tell Rosie now, huh? that you let the one woman she considered her mother fall? how disappointing Tony"

Tony grunted "Eject." he muttered, stepping out his suit, which flew away

Killian chuckled, flexing his neck and cracking his knuckles

"Well, here we are on the roof." Tony deadpanned

Killian actually laughed. Tony's face tightened. he was vaguely aware of Natasha, Clint and Steve's expecting glances at him, monitoring his moves and looking for any moment they might need to intervene

"I'll be damned." Killian chuckled "The prodigal son returns." he declared.

"Whatever." Tony almost growled

Killian shook his head, a smirk still on his lips

"You really didn't deserve her, Tony. It's a pity." he looked at Tony "I was so close to having her perfect"

"You're right." Tony replied, his voice devoid of any and every reaction "I don't deserve her." he paused, gulping "Here's where you're wrong. She was already perfect."

And with a gesture, he had Mark 42 wrapped around Killian and pinned to the closest wall

"JARVIS," Tony started, staring at the screaming Killian with anger and hatred "do me a favor and blow Mark 42."

And it exploded

Tony looked down as the suit's helmet rolled closer to his feet.

He picked it up. and suddenly a crunching of metal made him lookup. From amongst the melting metal, Killian stepped out, burning and full-on glowing.

"No more false faces." Killian growled, his voice sounding like an echo "You said you wanted the Mandarin. You're looking right at him!"

Killian flexed his muscles as the glow somehow got brighter

Tony barely registered Captain coming to stand next to him, his eyes on Killian as well

"It was always me, Tony. Right from the start. I am the Mandarin!"

with that, Killian attacked him. Tony grunted loudly as he fell on the ground and tried to get up. He might have cracked a rib or two, but those were least of his concerns. He looked up to see Steve engaging with Killian, but the scientist seemed to have an upper hand over the super soldier

And suddenly something-someone-struck Killian with a huge metal pipe, throwing him back. Tony gaped as he saw the source. A very alive Pepper with EXTREMIS in her. He got up and slowly made his way to Pepper

"I got nothing," Tony told her in a placating manner

Pepper's eyes left his own for a minute, settling next to him

Tony looked over his shoulder for a second then back at Pepper

"It's just Captain," he said "Capsicle?"

Pepper gulped. Tony took another step but stopped when he noticed a suit heading for Pepper, making his eyes to widen

"JARVIS, subject at my 12 o'clock is not a target, disengage!"

but nothing happened. Tony looked confused and scared before reaching for his ear and finding his comm missing.

"Stark"

Tony quickly looked at Captain before looking at his direction where his comm lie innocently

before either of the men could make a move to collect it, someone pulled Pepper away, causing the suit to crash on the ground. 

The two men, eyes wide, looked at the person. A very alive Rose with occasional orange glow in her body.

"Rosie..." tony called

"Hey dad" there wasn't much emotion in her voice and it perturbed Tony. A thud next to them had them all notice the others arriving. 

A loud growl made them all look where Pepper had hit Killian, who was emerging from the flames in his all fiery glory

Tony took a step forward but Rose took two

"Killian's mine" she snarled

Tony backed. While he didn't like Rose engaging with Killian one-to-one, he also knew better than to not piss her further when she's already livid

"Ah, Rosie, darling" Killian chuckled "I was hoping to see you. You really are someone special"

Rose chuckled darkly "I'm not your darling"

Killian chuckled and shook his head "Should have killed you before"

"Free to try now" Rose shrugged. Killian took that bait and made his way to attack her but she blocked his punch and punched back in his face. She could feel the EXTREMIS 2.0 powering her further and now she just wanted Killian destroyed. 

Killian stumbled back but Rose kept on hitting, punching and kicking him. 

"EXTREMIS helps regrow limbs, right? Let's put that to practical use" Rose snarled and grabbed Killian's arm

"Sectumsepra"

his arm, from the shoulder, got chopped off, causing Killian to scream in pain

"Not so successful, were we now?" Rose muttered and grabbed Killian by his neck, choking him

"You are a pain in the ass, Killian" she whispered harshly "Avada Kedavra"

and then Killian stopped, dead. his orange glow started fading away, revealing his normal human skin

Panting, Rose got up and turned around, stopping at everyone gawking at her

"What?" she asked

"That was...." Clint trailed off, his one hand moving a bit wildly and his mouth imitating a goldfish. Natasha elbowed him, which had him close his mouth while Steve handed Tony something.

An then she was tackled into a hug by Pepper

"I was so scared" Pepper whispered

"That makes two of us, Pep" Rose replied

Sound of footsteps made the two women pull from the hug and look at the approaching party

"What?" Tony softly asked, stopping on his steps "Oh, what, are you two mad at me?"

Pepper grunted again and tilted her head, arm still around Rose, holding her close

"Whoo!" Tony exhaled, panting.

"Oh, my God." Pepper muttered, looking around, speaking for the first time "That was really violent."

Rose shrugged "I've really seen worse"

"You two just scared the devil out of me." Tony said, stepping closer "I thought you were..."

"I was dead." Pepper finished for him, looking at him in question "Why? Because I fell 200 feet? Who's the hot mess now?"

"It's still debatable." Tony shrugged "Probably tipping your way a little bi-"

"What?" Rose looked at Pepper with widened eyes "what do you mean you fell 200 feet?"

"It's nothing" Pepper shrugged

"Pepper," Rose exasperatedly said

"I'm fine. That's what matters" Pepper replied

"Yeah" Tony nodded, stepping forward towards them, to hold them, but Pepper backed

"No, don't touch me."

"Don't worry about it," Tony assured her

"No, I'm gonna burn you."

"No, you're not." Tony reached and touched her "Not hot."

Rose looked down at her hands, who were now normal human tint. A hand was kept on her palm and she looked at the owner, Tony. Tears suddenly welled in her eyes and she lunged at Tony, grabbing him in a tight hug. Tony also wrapped himself around her

Tony swallowed every single curse he wanted to sprout out when he looked at Rose's condition. if Killian wasn't dead already, Tony was going to make a lab rat out of him and let him know the worst kinds of pain known to humanity. How dare he touch his daughter? how dare he take clothes off of her? and what all he had done to his precious munchkin?

A tightened grip made him look at Rose, who suddenly swayed at her feet. Tony acted on reflex. before Rose could hit the ground, he caught her, pulling her closer to him. he wrapped his arms around his daughter and pulled her into his chest, holding her tight and close. Pepper crouched next to them and wrapped her own arms around them both. Tony snaked one arm from Rose's grip and pulled Pepper in. He was okay now. He had his girls.

He heard footsteps behind him. He didn't need to look up to know who it was.

Rhodey's hand rested on his shoulder as his gaze dropped down to Rose, crouching next to the two

"Guys"

everyone looked at Natasha, who was looking at the sky. all of his suits were there. floating around them in a circle. some intact, some destroyed.

"Daddy?"

The voice was barely a whisper but it made Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey look at the girl in Tony's arms.

Another shoulder squeeze made him look up to see Steve, as Clint took on Tony's other side.

"I got you, peanut," Tony said to Rose "You are gonna be alright, okay?" he looked at Pepper, and held on her hand "You both are gonna be alright"

"Are you sure Tony?" Pepper's voice was timid but it was a very reasonable question. after all, he was the reason they were in this mess in the first place

"I'm not sure" Tony admitted "But I think I can figure this out, yeah. I almost had this 20 years ago when I was drunk. I think I can get you both better. That's what I do. I fix stuff."

"your distractions?" Rose barely whispered, but Tony heard her alright

"My distractions?" he weakly chuckled "Uh... I'm going to shave them down a little bit."

with that, he looked up at his suits

"JARVIS. Hey."

"Will there be anything else?" one of the suits spoke

"You know what to do." Tony weakly smiled

"The Clean Slate Protocol, sir?" JARVIS asked

Tony seemed hesitant for a minute before he looked at the woman he loved and the woman who was his lifeline

"Screw it, it's Christmas." he weakly laughed, his exhaustion getting the better part of him "Yes, yes."

and then one by one, all the suits started exploding into fireworks. Beautiful but very expensive fireworks. a shoulder squeeze made him look a Rhodey who gave him an approving look and a nod.

"Good one, Stark"

he almost snorted at Black Widow passive-aggressive praise. Clint gave him two thumbs up and a nod. Even Steve gave him an approving nod, not that his opinion mattered to him. okay, maybe it did, but only a little and he wouldn't be caught dead admitting that.

a weak chuckle made him look down at his daughter, as she rested her head on his shoulder. of course, she knew what was going through his head

"You didn't have to" she muttered

"But I wanted to" Tony replied, pressing a kiss on her forehead after which he look he looked at Pepper

"Okay, so far? Do you like it?"

"It'll do."Pepper smiled back, squeezing Tony's hand

"Medics are here"

Tony spared Steve a glance and then looked forward as a couple of heavy-duty vehicles approached them, pulling at the docks. Natasha and Clint made their way to the people who jumped out of the vehicles. A man approached Pepper

"Miss"

Pepper spared a look at Tony, Rhodey, and Rose before she left with the man. Rhodey got up and tried to take Rose from Tony

"I can take her" Tony protested

"You are injured Tony" Rhodey reasoned

"So are you"

the two men looked at Steve, who approached them "I can take her. You both need medical attention"

"Okay Capsicle, I-"

Tony stopped when he felt Rose hold on to his shirt's material a little tighter. he looked down at her and she very subtly shook her head.

Tony looked at her for a minute before sighing. he turned to Steve and nodded. Steve reached down and picked Rose from Tony's arms and headed for the ambulance

he just spared one glance at the barely conscious girl in his arms. she had curled a little into himself, her head resting over his chest. Steve tried to not turn pink at the undressed state of Rose but barely managed, which had him berate himself.

he made it to the ambulance and carefully laid Rose on the stretcher bed, covering her completely.

"Hey Cap"

Steve turned and found Tony right outside the ambulance

"Yeah?"

"...Thank you"

Steve blinked once before giving him a curt nod


	12. Chapter 12

10 days later,

Rose grunted, chewing on the tip of the pen as she looked over the EXTREMIS papers she had taken from the doctor.

A sudden tug made her look to her right where the nurse was changing the glucose IV pouch. Once done, the nurse shot her a small smile and brought forward a tray which actually made Rose groan, rolling her head back

"I'm afraid they don't have an escape, Ms. Stark" the nurse chuckled, amusement in his eyes

"Okay" Rose straightened, keeping the paper and pen on the nearby table "How about this? What Han doesn't know, wouldn't hurt, right? Tell her I took these..." she warily eyed the dosage of medicine "and all went well"

"I'm sorry, Ms. St-"

"Come on" Rose actually whined "These things are horrible, anyway. And I'll let Han know that you did your job in an amazing way" Rose finished with a wink, feeling smug when she noticed a faint pink blush on his cheeks

Before the nurse could reply, the door to her room opened and the person who entered made her groan loudly

"Thank you, Chad, I'll take it from here"

"Of course, Dr." the nurse quickly looked down and scurried his way out of the room, but not before shooting Rose a quick smile

"You had to scare one of the hottest nurses I've ever had" Rose eyed the newcomer "Really, Hannah?"

"Stop objectifying the nurses" Hannah deadpanned as she went through Rose's reports

"I'm not objectifying the nurses, Han, but Merlin, that one was one hot piece of ass. What's his name again? Can you please set us up for one night?"

Hannah shot her a glare over the cardboard

"You are a patient here and the nurses aren't booty calls" Hannah rolled her eyes as she deadpanned "Your reports seem back to normal. And your magic is returning to its normal levels. I guess we are good here"

"Great!" Rose beamed "When can I leave?"

"Tomorrow"

"Tom-why tomorrow?"

"Because I want you under observation for one more night, okay? then, you are free to leave" Hannah said, putting the reports back "and you are supposed to eat those" she pointedly looked at the medicine tray

"They are disgusting" Rose declared

"Says the girl who had polyjuice at 12. Stop pouting like a 3-year-old and drink that"

Reluctantly, Rose gulped whatever was on the tray, all the while frowning at Hannah

Once done, Rose grunted and settled back on the hospital bed

"Thank You, Ms. Stark" Hannah smiled, taking the tray with her

"You are not welcome, Dr. Abbott"

* * *

The last 10 days had been some of the worst time in her life. Especially when it came to removing the EXTREMIS from both Pepper and her

Both of them were taken to a SHIELD hospital. Despite been weak to her bones, Rose and Tony had taken two days to figure out a way to extract EXTREMIS out of Pepper. The operation had been successful and Pepper was discharged within four days of being admitted, back to normal.

Herself was a whole different case. And her glowstick form (unlike EXTREMIS, EXTREMIS 2.0 made her glow entirely from head to toe when she wanted to use magic) had apparently scared the daylights of Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper so badly, that Tony had quickly called Hannah Abbott and Poppy Pomfrey for assistance in her case. And unfortunately, Fury was not ready to let any doctors unapproved by him watch over an Avenger.

That demanded the harsh steps, which had Hannah fire a couple of mild hexes at Fury, also snapping

"I've been that's girl's personal doctor for the past 4 years. This woman has been tending to her since she was 11. If anyone knows Rose's body and magic the best in the world, it is us. No, you don't understand! You cannot cater to the needs of a witch as powerful as her. You'll only end up messing her. So either you let us heal her over here or we'll gladly take her to our London Hospital with or without your permission, Director!"

Fury had reluctantly agreed and walked away. He was not seen for the past week by any of them. And when she had asked Hannah about it,

"Relax, Rose. I may or may not have given him some boils over his face. Don't worry, they'll vanish within two weeks"

Rose had laughed so hard, her stomach had started hurting.

Back to the problem at hand,

EXTREMIS 2.0 had been very different than EXTREMIS. Not only that thing had acted as an extremely powerful source, but her magic had also turned the formulation sentient. Kinda like that Ford Anglia car Arthur Weasley had charmed.

EXTREMIS 2.0 went on to become more of a sentient parasitic nature and formed a weird relationship with her. It took residence and fuel from her and gave her a magical boost.

It took Tony and Rose a complete week to only figure out a way to safely extract EXTREMIS 2.0 out of her body, without causing it harm. Her magical cores had to be adjusted in a way that wouldn't demand EXTREMIS 2.0 for its own survival. And the lizard doctor's notes were a great help and a good start.

But of course during that one week in the hospital, Rose had been in and out of that glowstick form against her will. Apparently the parasite inside her liked being in control. Overcoming it every time left her more tired than before.

And then finally after 2 days of surgery, the EXTREMIS 2.0 was removed, her core was stabilized and she was shifted to a normal ward.

And now that Pepper and Rose were back to normal, Tony had decided it was time for him to do it too. And today was the day when he was going to get that shrapnel and the arc reactor out of his chest.

And Rose hated waiting. She also hated that she was stuck in her own wardroom and not next to Pepper and Rhodey who were with Tony. But she'd rather be alone than let her father be alone on this day.

So she had decided to busy herself by going over the whole EXTREMIS report to see if it could be modified in a way that it wouldn't turn people into extremely violent fireworks or walking fireflies or give them superhuman strength. Just help people to regrow their lost body parts.

A knock distracted her from the equation she was checking

"Come in" she called, pen still in her mouth. she heard the door open and close, which made her lookup. a small smile made its way to her lips and she sat a little more straighter

"Hey Steve"

"Hi" Steve replied, a little nervous. Rose noticed the bouquet of flowers he was carrying. As soon as Steve realized what she had seen, he quickly extended the bouquet towards her, along with a box of chocolates.

"These are for you," he said

"They are beautiful" Rose beamed, taking the flowers and chocolate. Rose closely inspected the bouquet and found a handwritten 'Get Well Soon' card. The writing was spectacular. and all the flowers were tulips. Not her favorite but hey, at least they weren't roses. She hated it when people gave her rose bouquets because of her name. She didn't hate roses but she never liked them either. she just tolerated them.

Rose reached and quickly emptied the flower vase next to her bed, filled it with some water and placed the bouquet in it.

"Thanks for visiting," she said, retracting herself to the bed where the box of chocolates laid innocently on her lap.

"I just wanted to check in with you and Sta-Tony" Steve replied, taking the seat next to her bed as she gestured for it.

"Thanks for the flowers too. And chocolates" Rose grinned, opening the box and stuffing one in her mouth. it melted in her mouth and she really wanted to moan in pure bliss. she was already loving it. "It's been ages since I've had chocolates" she extended the box towards Steve

Steve tried denying but the stern look on Rose's face him that she wouldn't take no for an answer, so he took a chocolate

"So, how's Fury?" she asked

"He's fine" Steve replied, a little confused "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah" Rose grinned at him and then took another chocolate, unwrapping it "And how are you?"

"I'm fine too"

Rose nodded

"Others?"

"Good. Nat and Clint are on some mission"

"So soon?" Rose looked at Steve and shrugged "huh, what would I know"

"What about you?" Steve asked

"A little tired. and I've definitely seen better days than this. I hate hospitals. they just smell so badly of chemicals and desperation" Rose scrunched her face "No offense" she quickly added

"None took" Steve smiled "I don't like hospitals either"

the room door opened again and Chad entered, making Rose grin

"Hey, Chad. Miss me?"

Chad just shot her a quick smile and began to change her glucose IV, which was empty, again. when was the last time that was changed?

"Come on. Don't ignore me" Rose grinned "And forget whatever Hannah said"

"You are Dr. Abbott's patient, Ms. Stark. I simply cannot ignore whatever Dr. Abbott told me"

"Well, Hannah's always been a bit of a downer. But you seem fun" Rose smirked, checking him over deliberately, which she knew both men took notice of.

* * *

Steve tried to ignore the weird feeling that bloomed in his gut when he saw Rose openly flirt with the nurse, whatever his name was. Steve narrowed his eyes at the newcomer

Brown hair. Green-hazel eyes. Good strong built. Caucasian Tone. Sharp features. About his mid to late 20s.

But Steve was so sure that he was better than that nurse. He was the first and only super-soldier. he could take up armies single-handedly. He had fought in WWII and had been frozen for nearly 7 decades. He took upon a hostile alien army. so why was Rose paying attention to the nurse and not him? And it irked him, even more, when she not only flirt with him but openly checked him out too.

"So you free this Saturday?"

This caused Steve to look at the youngest avenger in shock. Even the nurse seemed shocked at the question. Apparently too shocked to even reply

"Chad" she tapped his forearm "Saturday?"

"You see, Ms. Stark, I...I just...but...Shift..." Chad fumbled, a pink hint climbing up his face as he spared one glance at Steve, almost as if asking for help

"Don't worry about the shift, okay? I'll talk to Hannah. Are you okay with this Saturday?" she asked again

Even now, the nurse looked hesitant. And Steve could get it, somewhere. It's not every day that the Rose Stark asks someone out. Rose Stark, who also happens to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Tony Stark's daughter, the most eligible bachelorette in the world, the youngest billionaire, strongest women in USA-literally and figuratively and happens to have some superhuman abilities.

"I'm" Chad finally answered

"Great" Rose beamed "Pick me up at 7 PM from 10880, Malibu Point. Don't be late"

Chad flashed a smile, but they all could sense a little hesitance to it before he left. Steve looked at the young Stark in awe. Did she just set up a date for herself with her nurse?

"Are you sure about this?"

When Rose shot him a look, Steve realized that he had spoken it aloud, making him flush harder

"About what?"

"Abo-about..this..uh.."

"You can say one night stand, Steve. it's 2013. No one's gonna kill for you for that" she chuckled "Or you can still work out fondue"

Steve's flush deepened. How did she know? and how long has she known?

"Well, you know" Steve reasoned, trying to get his warm cheeks under control. This caused Rose to laugh quite loud, but not in an obnoxious way.

"Oh Steve" she sighed, a smile still on her face "You have no idea how adorable you can turn, do you?"

Steve nervously rubbed the back of his neck

"Anyway," she began "Yes, I'm sure about it because I haven't gotten laid in the past three months. and I've never been through such a long dry spell"

Steve gulped as his cheeks got a little warmer. Seriously, if this went on, he'd literally combust on the spot. Steve wouldn't complain a bit if the floor opened and swallowed him right away. in fact, he'd prefer that

And as if the god heard his prayer, the door opened again and this time, Tony entered, looking better

"Hey kiddo" he smiled at Rose before looking over at Steve "Rogers"

"Tony" Steve nodded back, vacating his chair but Tony gestured him to keep sitting

"So, how did it go?" Rose asked, looking at Tony expectedly

"It's been good" he replied, walking closer to her.

"Can I...?" Rose looked at her father. He started unbuttoning his scrub, to reveal a smooth patch of skin where earlier that arc reactor was with little scars, but they weren't much visible. Rose nervously raised her hand and ran it over her father's chest, feeling the skin beneath her fingers. a smile broke out on her lips

"Good?" Tony asked

"Better" she replied and quickly wrapped her arms around Tony's waist, pressing her face into his abdomen

Steve quietly got up and only giving a nod to Tony, which he returned, left the room.

* * *

Saturday evening found both the Starks at their destroyed Malibu Mansion, overseeing the sea. Rose took a deep breath and then looked at Tony

"Ready?"

Tony looked at the arc reactor in his hands, as he fiddled with it

"It's best to let go sometimes" Rose reached and wrapped her hand around Tony's and gave it a firm squeeze. Tony gave her a smile as she withdrew her hand. He tossed the reactor once in air before throwing it far off in the sea.

"Good riddance" Tony muttered

"Agreed" Rose smiled, reaching to wrap her one arm around Tony and resting her head on his shoulder as Tony also wrapped his one hand around her waist

"You know I just realized something" Rose muttered

"What?"

"We are back to where we started" Rose smiled "No arc reactors or shrapnels, or alien armies, or mechanical suits. Just you and me against the world"

Tony's grip tightened on Rose as he pulled her a little closer

"Well, Pepper and Rhodey are there too"

"We had them before too" she replied and took another deep breath "New cologne? trying to impress Pepper?"

Tony chuckled "Maybe? Good enough?"

"Best" Rose grinned at him

A car honk grabbed both their attention as they turned around. There on the road stood a sleek black car, inside which was a flustered looking Chad

"Who's that?"

"Chad" she replied, pulling from Tony and shooting him a knowing look

"I do not need to know that" Tony made a face, making Rose chuckle

"I'll see you tomorrow morning" Rose turned and walked to the car. She opened the door and entered the passenger seat

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ruin this moment between you and your dad" Chad apologized

"It's okay" Rose smiled back at Chad before looking forward as Tony entered his red Ferrari and pulled off, a wagon attached having all the equipment and robots that survived.

"So, uh, where too?"

Rose looked back at Liam, quickly blinking back her tears

"Uh...Mastro's Ocean Club" she replied, adjusting her black crop satin top as she flashed another smile at Chad "Shall we?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ......And THE END!  
> I hope you guys liked it. Comments and Kudos, below.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos down below


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